
When
Oracle announced its intent to acquire Sun Microsystems, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said Java is the single most important software we've ever acquired. Since he made that statement, though, there has been a lot of second-guessing regarding Oracle's true intent with Java. The DevXtra Editor's Blog, for example,
suggests that ?as Oracle seeks to get
a $1.5 billion contribution to its profits in its first year with Sun, Oracle may start pulling staff and funding from Sun Java projects that don't immediately contribute to the bottom line or at least show promise of contributing in the near future. While that's possible, I'm more inclined to believe that Oracle will extend much of what Sun has done with Java, and one big reason for that is that Java makes Oracle an important player in the fast-growing market for mobile technology.