Microsoft on fighting the Java infestation

Date: 1998

Snippet
From: Kurt Kolb Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 1998 6:02 AM To: Ken Myer Subject: FW: FY99 memo

do not forward - note the last line in the email.

--Original Message From: Joachim Kempin Sent: Monday, May 11, !998 2:22 PM To: OEM Personnel Sales Communication; OEM Personnel Sales Communication - Intl. Co: Nell Miller;, Bill Norman Subject: FY99 memo

I hope this will make you understand our FY 99 directions and prepare you for the sales meeting. I am sending this to you as the chairman of MSLI. See you in Vail.

..

Competitive Landscape

We continue to watch for computing paradigm shifts. While the NC was a big threat to us two years ago, I believe low priced PCs and CE handhelds/terminals have made this an unlikely new desktop computing platform proposition despite the fact that SUN and IBM are still trying, The Java threat on the other hand is real and will not go away. After examining this more carefully, it becomes clear to me that the Java OS will try to conquer the embedded marketplace from palm pilots over game machines to low-end terminals, while infesting all other computing devices with it’s programming language. "Develop once, run anywhere." While this sounds promising, it is not reality, at least not yet and probably never will be. Any on-the-fly compiler/interpreter will be big in code and slow in execution and would need to guard it’s standard. While we see some derivatives already, big and slow does not make it easy to put Java OS into devices with less than 8MB of RAM. This is a huge limitation, which we can easily explore with Win CE and it’s thinner kernel.

Our disadvantage in this area today is not having enough f~t on the street, not talking to the right potential customers and not having a real-time extension. As you can imagine, FY98 will be the year to change this and deliver more design wins with Win CE while improving the product.

Supporting the Java initiative are Sun, Oracle, IBM, and Netscape. The biggest issue for us is IBM’s support, while at the same time being in the PC camp and trying to get favorable treatment from us. IBM continues to be our largest software competitors, not just in size. Notes, DB11, and Smart Suite are the other examples where we compete with them and this means we will continue to treat the PC company as a valued customer- with respect but with less trust than Compaq/Digital, Dell and I-1P. Meaning you will not see any I field engagements with IBM and only a bare minimum of product marketing activities if any.

Application Bundling

The PC price erosion will continue for our consumer title prices, and will probably lead to less bundling over time. This will be true for DAD applications as well. Corel is at a point where they are offering their "office" suite for free, counting only on upgrade revenue - later! We have to stay flexible and opportunistic in the area and watch the competitors constantly to avoid surprises and loss of business. Stay flexible when customers propose to bundle lower priced application solutions on lower end systems while retaining office product bundles in special market segments like small business. The key for us is that they bundle Microsoft solutions and do not give their money to competitors- so we need to win their hearts and minds!

Full Exhibit
http://boycottnovell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/px02916.pdf