Scott McNealy told thousands of JavaOne attendees that the Internet has obsoleted the traditional market for computer applications and replaced it with a commodity model. There's a hundred microprocessors in my new automobile. I don't go around buying software for it. And he mentioned the Mozilla browser and the Star Office suite as other non-proprietary computing tools that are increasingly attracting users. Then he brought Java into the equation, taking pains to point out that its source code is freely available for development purposes and created through community partnerships.
Mail is a feature of the server.
It's not a third-party application. The new area for growth lies in server-side resources, he observed. It's a crazy-sounding assumption, but I think it's a good one. It should be sounding less crazy every day. And I think you all ought to use that assumption when you design your products.