Boasting of a target market of millions of Java development engineers and projected sales of one billion downloads, Sun Microsystems will soon launch its own Java applications store - according to the firm’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz.
Called Project Vector, Sun’s goal is to build “a network service to connect companies of all sizes and types to Java users all over the world,” Schwartz said. Java developers who wish to sell their applications at the store must first submit either free or for-sale applications to Sun for evaluation. Once these applications are approved for safety and content, these applications will then be distributed at Sun’s app store.
In a similar fashion to Microsoft and Apple, companies that gained 70 percent and 30 percent of sales revenue respectively, a minimum amount of money will be collected by Sun every time an application is sold or downloaded. However, Sun’s CEO is upbeat about the sales prospects of the app store - as well as the profitability for the Java app publishers themselves.
“Sun will charge for distribution, but unlike other app stores, whose audiences are tiny and measure in the millions or tens of millions, our audience will have an estimated one billion users,” said Schwartz. “That’s clearly a lot of traffic, and will position the Java App Store - as having the world’s largest [app store] audience.”
Java, which is most identifiable with the recent Internet industry developments, also runs in billions of personal computers, mobile devices, smartcards, servers, set top boxes, Blu-Ray DVD players, and even Kindle - Amazon.com’s e-book reader. However, many devices, such as Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD players, only license core Java technology from Sun and then build their own Java runtime, said Schwartz. The only Java runtimes that comes directly from Sun are those that run on PCs - a fact that made Windows Java runtime the company’s most profitable platform.
With the Java App Store, Schwartz stated that obtaining the distribution for Java applications now means “having another company propel your content into the market via the internet” instead of only accessing “bricks and mortar distributors in shopping malls.” Apart from amassing sales, the store’s goal is to create “an opportunity for everyone in the developer community - and specifically, for any developer, even non-Java/JavaFX users, seeking to reach beyond the browser to create a durable relationship with customers,” according to Schwartz.
More details about the app store, such as content or application submission, Project Vector’s technology, roadmap, business model and other features will be announced at Sun’s JavaOne conference in San Francisco on June 2, 2009.
