Sun Launches Network PC--Without the ‘P’

For much of the last year, the computer industry has been debating the merits of a new type of cheap, simple personal computer that would access information and programs over the Internet. Now, finally, the nature and potential of these machines is becoming clear--and one wonders what all the fuss was about.

Sun Microsystems Inc. on Tuesday introduced the first of these so-called network computers, the JavaStation, and company President Ed Zander predictably declared, “This is a revolution that’s starting.”

But the Sun machine will not offer consumers a cheaper and easier way to surf the Internet--the espoused goal when Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison first advanced the idea of a $500 network PC last year. Rather, the JavaStation--priced at about $1,000--is designed to cut the costs of operating large corporate computer networks.

Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. have long belittled the notion of the NC--who would ever want anything other than a PC based on the Intel Pentium chip and running Microsoft Windows software?--but they didn’t get where they are by ignoring potential rivals.

So the “Wintel” coalition, including leading PC makers such as Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett Packard Co., patched together an announcement Monday proposing a slimmed-down machine called a NetPC that will still use Pentium and Windows. But it, too, will be for corporations, not consumers, and will in the end differ little from the PC of today.

Jerry Michalski, editor of Release 1.0, an industry newsletter, says the market for lower-cost machines aimed at corporate networks is “potentially a big niche.”

But it won’t go much beyond that, he says, because most people don’t want to give up their disk drives and their local software and rely on their network connection for everything. Eliminating the local storage is the main thing that would make the machines cheaper.

Furthermore, it turns out it’s hard to make network PCs all that cheaply. PCs are made of standard components and in very large quantities, and eliminating a few components doesn’t change the price all that much. Well-equipped Pentium PCs can be had today for little more than the price of Sun’s JavaStation.