A recent interview with Sun EVP Jonathan Schwartz caught my attention.

Sun is one of those interesting companies to me. The current “please release Java as Open Source” debate aside, their biggets innovation in the last 5 years has been the release of Sun ONE (or whatever they’re calling it); which is basically a full application suite, which corps pay for on a monthly basis.

I looked into this at my last job, as we were looking at doing a full scale rollout of new systems, and what better time to get a new environment than then (if you remember …).

Anyways, cost for hardware: 60$/machine/month. Cost for Sun ONE: 120$/machine/month. Cost to license same MS software on financing, with Software Assurance (free upgrading): 45$/month.

So, the whole:

The gross margins of Sun Microsystems are 40%. The gross margins of Microsoft are upwards of 95. For them to go from 95 to 85 means they crater their business. Their market cap will plummet. For us to go from 40 to 45, it’ll probably double the stock price. I often joke: Whatever Microsoft’s last quote is, ours is half of it. They bid a buck per desktop, ok 50 cents.

… Just don’t fly with me Jonnie.

Oh, and the MS price was before our charity discount, which would have brought the price down to less than 10$/machine/month.

I’m not one to bash on a company like Sun, but I’ve been wondering when they’d get swallowed up, or go bankrupt, for quite some time now. Then again, they could end up leading the next wave. They’re just that kind of company.