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Sun Execs Debut Java App Store

Today at Sun Microsystems' JavaOne conference, CEO Jonathan Schwartz and Vice President and Sun Fellow James Gosling unveiled the beta version of Sun's new Java App Store, which you can visit here. As we've reported, Sun foresees it reaching many millions of users of Java applications, and the company hopes developers will fill it with useful Java applications. Although, applications at the store will be free in the beta trial, Sun's goal is also to get significant revenues from the store. Here's more on what Schwartz and Gosling said and showed on stage.

You can watch live webcasts of the presentations at JavaOne here. In introducing the Java App Store, Gosling pointed out that "at Sun we've been building app stores for decades." He was referring to the many smaller application repositories that Sun has put together for other companies.

"What we are unveiling today is a storefront for the Java platform," Schwartz said. He said the goal is to give users access to top Java applications, and to give developers access to "a billion consumers.

Developers are invited to begin kicking the tires at the Java App Store immediately, and can upload applications from toolkits that they already use. For example, applications can be submitted directly from the JavaFX toolset.

A large server farm underlies the App Store, Gosling said, "with a storefront and a bunch of REST APIs." In demonstrating the store, he hovered his mouse over icons and hints about how to use the store popped up automatically.

In the beta phase of the Java App Store, applications will be free, but Schwartz and Gosling stressed that it will become a revenue-generating store, and that developers will have opportunities to make money. "We want money collection strategies to be a conversation initially," Schwartz said. Gosling also noted that he and Schwartz have looked at many models for generating revenues, including the model Apple uses for its popular app store, and others.

As we've suggested before, Oracle may have quite a bit to do with Sun's App Store efforts. The company has a longer and stronger track record at monetizing software efforts than Sun has. The questions now are will developers get excited about the Java App Store, and will users be willing to pay for applications?
 

• Sun Microsystems
• Oracle
• Java App Store

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