Sun Microsystems has announced its mobile Internet strategy.
Sun Microsystems on Monday announced its mobile Internet strategy. This includes a $100 million venture capital fund to invest in wireless companies, as well as creating a new business unit dedicated to the mobile Internet. This operation will be partly based in Sweden, since Scandinavia is recognized as one of the most advanced areas in wireless technology.
The move comes quite late for Sun – many of its competitors are ahead of it in mobile technology. Nonetheless, the market is still developing, and especially since many operators are planning on producing phones enabled with Sun’s Java technology, Sun should still be in a good position to benefit. It plans to do this partly by forming joint research efforts with its customers to develop and test new technologies – it will also bolster its support services and training operations to provide support for wireless service providers and developers. While these moves are all positive, they are required for Sun to maintain its position as the focus of the Internet shifts to mobile operations, rather than areas likely to generate substantial new revenues.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the move is the VC fund, however. It plans to invest in companies concentrating on the growth areas of location technology, streaming video, and mSecurity. Obviously, how successful this fund is will depend on how wisely Sun continues to choose its investments – nonetheless, the company could find itself with a major success in at least one of these areas. The startup firm would then be able to leverage Sun’s enormous corporate marketing power.
Sun’s move follows its competitor IBM’s announcement that it will extend its eCommerce support operations to cover wireless networks and protocols. This, like most of Sun’s new product range, is a sensible but uninspired reaction to the shift to mobile networks. Both companies are making reasonable decisions that will allow them to keep thriving in the wireless world – but only Sun’s strategy goes beyond the merely necessary to the inspired.
