Thursday, June 30, 2005
Sun Enters Laptop Game
Enterprise computer maker Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) 
announced its first-ever laptop yesterday, saying the machine was designed to let engineers and scientists perform demanding computer tasks away from their desks.
Sun, which has seen sales fall for the last four years, said that it was also lowering prices for some of its computers by up to 40 percent.
Cheaper Prices
The Ultra 20 Workstation, a desktop computer equipped with an AMD (NYSE: AMD) Opteron processor, now will cost US$895, a cut from the previous price of $1,495.
The Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation will list at $3,400 and is equipped with Sun's Ultrasparc processor, the Solaris 10 operating system, 512 megabytes of memory, a 40 gigabyte hard drive and WiFi connectivity.
Also unveiled were several initiatives to drive customer adoption, including a "try and buy" program that lets customers take an Ultra 20 for a 90-day test drive at no charge.
Free Software
Sun is also loading its newest workstations with free software that it values at thousands of dollars, such as Java Studio Enterprise 7 and Sun Java Studio Creator. The goal is to coax developers to create applications that run on Sun machines, the company said.
Sun is also giving away the source code for its application server software, which helps corporate databases work together, to spur development of new programs, the company said.
source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/44210.html
