SINGAPORE (10-26-95) - Sun Microsystems Inc. expects to sign licensing agreements with Lotus Development Corp. and Intuit Inc. concerning its Java Internet programming language, a Sun official said here today.
Lotus and Intuit are likely to separately build Java interpreters into their hit products, Notes and Quicken, respectively, said John Gage, director of Sun's science office, in an interview with the IDG News Service. He did not disclose details of the agreements.
A Sun spokeswoman at the company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters said she was unaware of the negotiations. She did say that in coming weeks a US on-line service and a large Japanese electronics company are expected to announce that they have licensed the technology.
The deals will follow similar plans disclosed recently by Netscape Communications Corp. -- which will support Java in Netscape 2.0, the forthcoming version of the company's popular browser software -- and Oracle Corp., which has pledged to incorporate Java across its product line.
Sun's goal with the Java licensing deals is to create an installed base of Java interpreters built into a range of applications and browsers that can interpret Java-based code sent in "applets" over a network, Gage said.
That could spur a new model for software upgrades, he said. "If someone at Lotus thinks of [an upgrade to Notes] instead of you needing a new version of Lotus Notes, you just download this little applet that gives you this new capability," he said.
The company is also talking with a range of vendors interested in building hardware that uses the technology. Toshiba Corp. announced last month that it will build a Java-based handheld device designed for mobile workers.
The Toshiba deal could be the first of many endorsements by Japanese vendors of the technology, said a source close to Sun's Japan unit. Interested companies include Minolta Camera, which is looking at a digital camera application for the technology, and automaker Toyota, which might integrate the technology into a car navigation system, the source said.
[Copyright 1995 IDG News Service, International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.]