Matt Mullenweg (the guy who started Automattic, which produces WordPress, which runs this blog and many others) tells Jonathan Schwartz that Sun Microsystems isn’t there for startups.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Sun can improve its approach to startups. LAMP is sure getting traction — I’ve stopped asking entrepreneurs what infrastructure they are using since the answer was so consistently LAMP.
Sun has done a great job of stopping the bleeding and getting some interesting new products out (Black Box, for instance) but for Sun to dramatically increase its relevance it needs to convince Steve Jobs to put Java on his new products and needs to build something that really shakes up the Web 2.0 industry.
That’s why I asked Jonathan what Sun’s iPhone was. I notice Jonathan didn’t have a good answer to that question.
Oh, and someone asked why would Steve Jobs put Java on the iPhone? My answer: it’s dramatically easier to write applications for a runtime-compiler system like Java or .NET. Because Steve Jobs refuses to go with Java (putting .NET on iPhone doesn’t make sense for Apple’s business) it means that developers on Apple’s iPhone will need to work a lot harder to get apps out. Translation: fewer apps.
I remember back in 1989 that Apple was six years ahead of the industry with its Macintosh II. Remember, it took until late 1995 until Microsoft was able to match the innovations Apple shipped in 1989.
So, why did Apple only end up with a small sliver of market share? Developers, developers, developers.
Oh, sorry, I’m channelling Steve Ballmer again.
Aside: I’m posting this from the Golden Gate bridge. I love Verizon Wireless!!!
Scobleizer 