Sun Takes A (Smart) Page From Apple’s Playbook

I read an article in the 9/13 edition of the Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com, “Sun Is Warming Up To Windows”) that announced that Sun would start selling servers pre loaded with the Windows OS running under the control of Sun’s virtualization software.

I think this is smart.

You might recall that Apple recently adopted the same strategy by offering laptops and desktops pre loaded with Windows software that runs under the control of its virtualization software.  This effectively removes the barrier from Windows users switching to a Mac by ensuring that they have a mechanism for running their Windows programs.

Now Sun is providing the same option to those that run Sun hardware and software as part of their enterprise infrastructure.

I’d like to see Sun continue to study the Apple play book.  What makes Apple great?  Creative design, great user software and user interfaces, a unified largely trouble free experience, better security  – all at increasingly competitive prices.  Apple owns their value chain from the hardware, to the software, to the distribution channel.  Because they control it, they can make the overall user experience better.

Sun can emulate this approach by sticking to their roots while at the same time embracing Windows for the reasons stated above.  Control the hardware, make the software better, and make the enterprise owner experience better by making it easer to deploy and run Sun products to do the heavy lifting in the IT industry such as serving web sites, running ERP systems, and transferring data  – all at an increasingly attractive price.

I welcome your comments.
Mike Brannan