The closure of online trade publication NC World, which ended its publication run with the June issue, is not a good omen for the success of Network Computers themselves. NC World’s first issue was published at the end of 1996, with the hope that NC products and sales would take off during the following year. But they didn’t. Then the main two champions of the NC, Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc, stopped supporting NC World through advertizing. Oracle had no experience with the desktop, and Sun had no experience with low-end products, founder and contributing editor Rawn Shah told Wired. Ironically, NC opponent Microsoft Corp was the one advertizer that did support the publication, and eventually became the major source of news. Microsoft’s high-profile launch of the Windows Terminal Server Edition of Windows NT last week (CI No 3,433) attracted the kind of third party support that Oracle and Sun could only dream about. Dataquest figures put overall sales of Network Computers at around 144,000 units in 1997, with this year’s predictions showing that shipments are unlikely to top 500,000 units. A few large contracts, such as Sun’s recent Sabre Group deal for travel agencies (CI No 3,423), may not be enough to stem the general perception of a stillborn market. Meanwhile, only IBM Corp appears to be doing reasonably well from Network Computers. IBM has so far sold around 100,000 units since the Network Station was launched last year, positioning them as a green screen terminal replacement for its S/390 mainframe and mid-range AS/400 systems. Last week’s agreement with Santa Cruz Operation to include its Network Station Manager software into SCO Unix could help boost sales into small businesses. Network Station Manager also runs on Windows NT, and IBM has announced NC support for Citrix Systems Inc’s MetaFrame software, so that the Network Stations can be used with the new NT Terminal Server Edition. For Unix application support, IBM has a deal in place with GraphOn Corp to include the Go-Joe X Window interface. And IBM is working with Sun on Jave OS for Business, which it intends to use for high-end Network Stations in the future.
