How Java Sould be Marketed(interesting)

Question

I thought this may be relevent here, it gets into some interesting ideas about distribution. enjoy.
Sun needs a new JAVA marketing strategy.
Opinions expressed here are of my own, Matt Prokes, remember these are only opinions about what should or could be.
If you have ?'s contact me at [email protected]
What Java's Problem Is:
As far as I can see the only problem that java has these days is the client inconsistency s, this is due to Microsoft and there attempted destruction of the HUGE java language, and Microsoft has succeeded wonderfully thus far, which is sad. I feel it is only due to the way Sun markets Java, not that they have not tried but they are going about it the wrong way.
Sun Feels They Are Being Oppressed:
It seems to me that Sun has a feeling of being oppressed by Microsoft, they see the company inflicting standards on the computing world that are self centered and platform specific, this is why java was created, to break that mold and it does it wonderfully but java has not gained popularity because of marketing technique, no, it has gained popularity because it REALLY is what it is cracked up to be....A better way of doing things....
That is why sun landed the title of being one the the most innovative company s today by the magazine �PC World� ranking 13th place while Microsoft landed 137th (i think).
Yet with all this technology sun does not try to inflict it's standards on the PC world, well you might think what about all those court cases, for instance the most recent that suggests that Sun wants to FORCE Microsoft to install their JVM. I think stuff like this just slows Sun down, as we learned with previous cases Microsoft is just to big to fight and if you do manage to win it will be 3-4 years later. If you think about it time is money, why waste time? Trying to leach off of Microsoft is NOT the way to inflict standards, in fact it is one of the worst ways because by the time you would have won Microsoft would have bullied the java environment to it's grave (umm .net). So you may ask how do we enforce standards without the help of Microsoft, the answer is more simple than you may think yet for some reason it has not been thought of by Sun. So far this is what has brought Microsoft to the top.
1.Great Software
2.Enforced Standards, and Implementation
3.Excellent Marketing
4.Protected Software (Ideas)
5.Industry Wide Support
Innovation is not on this list, Microsoft does not have a innovative bone in it's body at the moment, it just buys technology that it needs, and has flashy GUI's, and a huge amount of support in the software industry. This is why according to the magazine �PC World� Microsoft ranks #137 in innovation while Sun sits at a satisfying ranking of #13.
What this means is that Sun just is more innovative, it has technology out there that could be used but it can't because we have clients with Version 1.3 Java software on their PC's, Either that or Proprietary and NOT PLATFORM INDEPENDENT Microsoft JVM's which Microsoft will again start to distribute in 2004 on XP, this brings me to my first point, if we are going to have a platform independent language it needs to come from ONE POINT that will be implemented by all Manufactures (the W3C for instance). You may be thinking well how do you enforce the SUN JVM if Microsoft does not pack it with windows? The answer is you do what most new company s do and that is goto the PC Vendors. I would like to point out that Microsoft is for the most part ONLY a software company (aside from some of there PC products), but they do not build and distribute PC systems, thus Microsoft does not control what can go on a PC, I would like to point out the growing Linux threat to windows, more particularly the Linux based operating system (Lindows) recently lindows has acquired a deal with walmart to sell there operating system as a substitute to windows, this worked out phenominaly and right now walmart cannot seem to keep enough of the pc's on the shelves (since they cost only about 199$). Case point Linux has also grown enormously due to �Home Editions� of Linux (Red Hat). The first point I would like to make is that Sun should be PAYING vendors to install the SUN JVM over the Microsoft one, this takes care of a few of Sun's problems (Not as much industry support as Microsoft, and upgrading the JVM) all this can be done for a measly 5-6 million a year and will reach about 70% of the PC sector, in fact I am almost certain this is how Microsoft started out.
One Of Java's Big Problems JVM Inconsistency s
Now if Sun locks 70% of the PC market that will already be a large boost for java, but the question is how to make the percentage grow to 100%... I would now like to point out the company Macromedia, macromedia products are phenominal, and have changed the way media is seen on the web, particularly the Flash product that macromedia sells, now at this moment macromedia has stated that >90% flash support exists on the web today and >70% is with the most current version of flash, as I see it in fact flash is one of the most universally supported pieces of software even more so than Microsoft, this is why you see flash movies on yahoo, cnet, amazon, and even MSN! So you may ask what made flash what it is today? Well as described before flash is supported and installed by PC vendors, and even if it is not you can barely go any place on the web with out getting a message stating that you should upgrade to the most current version of flash, this is due to the wide support on the web..... Now on the other hand if I run a java applet and the applet was compiled with some new features that were not supported in version 1.3 (Swing for example) we will get an error message stating that the package cannot be found and the applet will not run...You do not get any messages to upgrade, no window prompts, nothing..which brings me to my next point the java compiler should include the code (a pre JVM 1.3 version & Microsoft JVM compatible) that will prompt you to install the most current version of Java you already see default loaders for swing, a plug in check should also be included in all programs to ensure that you have to most recent version, and if you do not then it will send you to the Sun Website, or display a update manager or something. Getting an error saying that the applet packages are not found does not help the user any it only frustrates them, you have to physically provide a remedy to the problem at hand. This should also check to see if the Microsoft JVM is installed and if it is prompt to upgrade to the Sun JVM, this will pretty much destroy the use of the Microsoft JVM.
This takes care of the enforcing standards part, braudens the Industry Wide Support, and protects the java environment, last but not least you need to promote the software, Java already does this excellently with web services, and other things but there are more consumers than businesses and Java should also be concentrating more on the excellent 3d support that they have, the networking features of java, ect. Take OpenOffice.org for instance the product has grown emmensly since it has started and much uses Java API's, you would see much growth in Java if you provided other products like Open Office for free, for instance a Quake Like Multi player game in Java 3D distributed on an open source environment, in applet form (since applets are exclusively a invention of Java), and then have a couple of servers set up that people can play for free on Sun's site, more networking app's for free, ect. You have to promote some of the more flashy features of Sun this way in order to see more growth and support and for free (learn from Linux which is quickly becoming a HUGE threat for Microsoft) if sun is making 13 billion a year I see no problem to them sporting a couple of servers with some USEFUL online apps/games/ect that sport how innovative java really is, and if they really need to they can have all the banners on stuff like the online games, take Http://www.runescape.com that sports an average of 10,000 users at any moment using the cross platform Java 3d API and they do it for free! All open source free products should be on Suns website, it shows how strong of a community Sun really is, instead of having it on some other website like www.openoffice.org that only sports Sun's name maybe a few times you might occasionally see a logo.. it would be better to maybe get open office from an address like www.openoffice.sun.com, maybe try a www.games.sun.com address or a www.apps.sun.com and then advertise the stuff that can be found at the Sun website. You see Microsoft doing it with the .net platform and other utility s all the time on places like MSN I don't see why Sun does not make the same initcative and better yet have it open source. Open source software simply �matures� quicker than regular software, Sun should be proud to be part of open source, it is the only thing Microsoft can't buy....
Opinions Of Matt Prokes..
[email protected]

Answer 1

And now your question is "How should my ideas be marketed?" Well unfortunately ideas, even if they are unique and original, are a dime a dozen. And they are mostly drowned out by propaganda, sometimes in the guise of ideas itself.
If you really want to propagate your ideas, then you need to follow ashkelon's advice. My eyes glazed over almost instantly when I ran into 40-line paragraphs. Find somebody who writes well and ask them for their help. (Those people are often called "editors" when they are at work.)
Next, where should you try to send your ideas? I can tell you that vice presidents of marketing respond negatively when people come out of nowhere and tell them "You are doing your job wrong, here's what you should be doing." No matter whether what you say is true or not, that's just human nature to get all defensive when that happens. You could try to get an article like what you posted there published in one of the industry magazines that covers topics like that; but to do that you would definitely need an editor. (You might even get paid for the article, too.)