Sun Microsystems Inc is poised to announce its Personal Web Acess browser, developed by Spyglass Inc. Personal Web Acess is a browser with a smaller footprint than the existing HotJava browser that will work with the Personal Java operating system. Spyglass, the Naperville, Illinois based embedded internet browser company that made its name with Mosaic, was approached by Sun last year for its Java and internet skills. Sun commissioned us to write a specific Java browser for PersonalJava, said David Harris-Evans, managing director at Spyglass because it was becoming increasingly clear that Sun’s own original Java profile was too large. Personal Web Acess takes advantage of Spyglass’ skills in the small footprint for embedded browsers market. But Sun could not give more specific details about the technology or a date for the announcement as we went to press. Spyglass said it concentrates on the embedded browser market because it has to keep out of the path of Netscape Communications Corp and Microsoft Corp. We are looking for customers outside the Microsoft/Netscape model, said Harris-Evans. It is not in their interests to reduce the footprint because they have a comfortable cartel, he said. It is a nice idea to have smaller, cheaper PCs, but no-one in the PC industry is interested in that. It would downsize the whole market. A small company like us would not like to take that head on. Spyglass’s main customers are in the wireless telecoms and advanced television markets. Spyglass has licensed its browser software to Finnish telecoms and electronics company Nokia Oy and Power TV Inc. It names amongst its competitors Navio, the Netscape spin off that that been swallowed by the Oracle Corp NCI division; and Diba in the television sector, which has now been bought up by Sun.
