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Sun, IBM slim NC expectations

Nowadays, NC equals Niche Computer

IBM and Sun have admitted that widespread acceptance of NCs among corporates is no longer on the cards -- assuming it ever was -- and are realigning their strategies accordingly, claimed PC Week US. The premise is that many of the two vendors' big league corporate customers are themselves re-evaluating their IT strategies, either limiting the roll-out of NCs or phasing them out of their plans altogether. "Three short years ago we were desktop-focused. The perception that Java clients would take over the desktop was naive. NCs are betterin single-purpose environments like airline and hotel reservations," admitted Sun's JavaSoft division group product manager, Gina Centoni. "We've reset our business objectives to what the reality of the market is," said IBM US' director of channels and marketing said. He added the company will now focus on niche markets such as retail, manufacturing, and travel and transportation. Of course, that 'reality' is largely what analysts and industry observers have been saying for some time: that the NC is currently more suited to niche applications, such as data entry and information presentation, than as a mainstream general-purpose computing platform, ie. as a PC substitute. ® See also Fat prices for thin clients deter corporates Click for more stories Click for story index

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