Oracle announces definite plans to get into the netbook/mobile Internet device market?

Ian Lamont — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:32:19 -0400

The technology industry was taken by surprise earlier this week, when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison made some unexpected comments about his company's hardware plans. As described by one source,

... Ellison broadly hinted that Oracle would get into the consumer electronics business, offering netbook-like machines that would compete with the Acers, HPs, Dells, and Lenovos of the world.

Another source reported Ellison making the following remark:

"I can see lots and lots of Java devices, some coming from our friends at Google," said Ellison. "But I don't see why some of those devices shouldn't come from Sun/Oracle."

Ellison did not give any details, and many observers did not take the comments seriously considering Oracle's historical roots as a provider of enterprise software.

Nevertheless, there are several factors that would make Oracle consider a move into the consumer hardware arena, including Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which brings new hardware and software skills and technologies into the Oracle fold. Ellison clearly sees huge potential in Java -- at his speech to the JavaOne attendees in San Francisco on Tuesday, he pledged to develop Java applications for phones and netbooks, saying "There will be computers fundamentally based on Java and JavaFX, not only from Google but also from Sun."

Prediction: On or before December 31, 2009, Oracle will announce plans to develop a mobile Internet device similar to a netbook (i.e., a keyboard and screen no larger than 12.1 inches, and a processor with roughly the same power and processing speeds found in Intel's Atom family), or a platform for such devices that combines an operating system and SDK along the lines of Google Android or Intel Moblin that is not a next-generation version of Java ME. The criteria for this prediction coming true are an Oracle press release or named Oracle employee quoted in the press stating that Oracle has definite plans to develop such a device and/or platform.

Image: Larry Ellison, 2005 (Eddie Awad/Flickr, creative commons license)