HP will also contribute its espeak technology to the effort. The company is also participating in e-marketplace infrastructure building and standards creation. HP has steadily been fulfilling an April declaration to become a stronger player in the Internet commerce space. The company was simultaneously still flirting with the notion of acquiring PricewaterhouseCoopers' global management and information technology consulting practice. HP had announced plans several months earlier to bolster its e-commerce consulting arm.
Bluestone fulfills the application serving component.
Perhaps Bluestone will reach more of its potential when sold as part of a configuration. The company had already been working since May with Impiric to incorporate BroadVision Inc.'s and Moai Technologies Inc.'s products in a B2B portal. Last but certainly not least, HP's headway in the smart appliance sector, with its ChaiServer Embedded Virtual Machine, has the potential to extend well beyond the printer market. However, no plans to do so have been announced. Sun and IBM have a potentially formidable rival.