
Will the Java Platform Create The World's Largest App Store? - iamelgringo
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/will_java_be_the_world
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aristus
This is rather disturbing. Not only does it abuse the idea of trusted updates
even more, since it's bundled with an important runtime you probably won't be
able to opt out completely.

Certainly not what the users signed up for when they bought that computer or
installed that runtime. And now every company with some installed base is
going to try this. I can't wait for the Claria/Gator/Yahoo/AOL App Store!

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MikeMacMan
"As with other app stores, Sun will charge for distribution - but unlike other
app stores, whose audiences are tiny, measured in the millions or tens of
millions, ours will have what we estimate to be approximately a billion users.
"

I mean, come on...

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JunkDNA
Yeah, that made me gag too... their PR department is really over-selling
things. They also overlook a very embarrassing fact: in spite of all those
"users", I bet they have almost no brand recognition whatsoever with at least
75% of them. Most average consumers install Java because some website told
them that they have to and they've long since forgotten about it (or at least
until the updater nagged them from the Windows task bar that updates were
available).

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mbrubeck
Java may have a great development platform, but it's not a great end-user
platform. As a user, I'm never going to go to the Java App Store to shop for
software.

~~~
anigbrowl
You don't have to. They can push it to you with an update, and damn near
everyone has it installed already. PR is hyperbole of course, but they do have
a very large installed base, who are used to it being on their machines even
if they're not sure what it does.

The trick will be to invite users in such a way that it doesn't look like a
browser popup.

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darkxanthos
Will the Java Platform Create The World's Largest Crap Store? (sun.com)

There fixed that for ya. Java might be extremely popular but it is not known
for its aesthetic qualities. You can get away with it on the back-end but I
don't believe they really know how to appeal to users/consumers (hence the
roaring success of JavaFX or any other Java UI tech /sarcasm).

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ozten
No.

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ShabbyDoo
Sun has a habit of using JavaOne to beat developers over the head with
whatever shiny, new idea is perceived to make it the most money (or, in past
years, will cause analysts to increase price targets). Schwartz loves to talk
about "billions and billions" like Carl Sagan, but his numbers are irrelevant
when it comes to predicting partner revenue. His reasoning is much like that
of an entrepreneur saying, "If we only capture one percent of this market..."
Nevermind, in this case, that there are fewer and fewer reasons to build a
desktop app instead of a webapp.

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barrybe
Awesome. Fresh off of the incredible non-success of our client-side Java
Applet, Java Web Start, and JavaFX platforms, we're going to take advantage of
our required JRE download to push out software that users probably don't want
it. (I mean, if the user _really_ wanted that stuff, they could just go to the
vendor's web side, am I right?). If you thought the default Yahoo toolbar was
annoying, we're just getting started!

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davidw
So why do they still get to ship their runtime with Windows? Is that a relic
of the anti trust settlement?

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lallysingh
Separate lawsuit after MS broke the Java license with their own semicompliant
JVM.

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JereCoh
No. because all Java desktop apps run like crap.

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ShabbyDoo
Many do, but they don't have to. Look at Eclipse as an example of what can be
done.

Also, there's no indication that the store will be limited to Java apps. Sun
is basically selling slots inside its Trojan horse.

~~~
tlrobinson
While Eclipse is indeed one of the best Java desktop applications I've seen,
it's still much worse than most "native" desktop applications (at least on OS
X) in terms of polish and performance (though it certainly has a lot of
functionality)

