Wyse Technology Inc is ditching its version of the Network Computer in favor of a new, thinner, Java Network terminal, because, it seems, the Network Computer got too fat, too expensive, and just plain didn’t sell. Capitalizing on Sun Microsystems Inc’s delays in volume production of its JavaStation Network Computers (CI No 3,282), Wyse promises its new Java terminals will be available in the first quarter of next year. Wyse was an early entry into the Network Computer market last year, though in truth it only adapted its existing Winterm products to comply with the NC Reference Profile (CI No 3,042). Julie Hewitt, the company’s director of marketing for Europe the Middle East and Africa, says customers want to use Java terminals to access Java applications, but are not prepared to pay the price of having the 32Mb memory needed in a Network Computer to run downloaded applets. The Wyse Java Network Terminals will comply to the NC reference profile, but run a cut down version of the Java OS, and have considerably less than 32Mb memory. They will present just the front end user interface on the terminal, while all processing is carried out on the server. Hewitt says most of the company’s customers are not interested in running personal productivity applications such as word processing and spreadsheets in Java, they are quite happy to stick with Windows for these. What they are looking for is to run mission critical data entry and order processing-type applications, typically on a Unix or Windows NT server, with access from a Java client, she says. The new terminals will also run Windows applications, but again server-based versions, using Citrix Systems Inc’s Winframe multi-user NT server, and Microsoft Corp’s own Hydra multi-user server when it is available. So Wyse happily seems to be coming ever closer to completing the full circle back to the dumb terminals it originally started with. The Java terminals will apparently cost two-thirds the price of an NC, coming in at between $750 and $950. The company showed off two thin client prototypes, codenamed Scott and Elite, at Comdex last week, along with a Winterm client system supporting Hydra (CI No 3,294).
