“Sun Microsystems Inc. today announced it was slashing the price
of its Sun Ray 1 thin clients, adding two new “all-in-one
appliances” to the Sun Ray line and releasing its first software
upgrades for its thin-client operating system. The company said the
changes come amid what it heralded as the considerable success the
corporate system has enjoyed since its launch last September.”
“The Sun Ray 1 is a stateless “enterprise appliance” that relies
entirely on a central server for its computing power. … The Sun
Ray 1 also features Hot Desk technology, which enables users to
utilize any Sun Ray on a network and have their desktop environment
follow them wherever they go. … The Sun Ray 1 appliance,
excluding monitor, had sold for $499 since its introduction. But
today, Sun announced it was slashing that price to $299.”
“Sun’s success with the Sun Ray is due in part to some hard
lessons the company learned with the JavaStation, said analyst Tony
Iams of D.H. Brown & Associates. “They also learned some things
in marketing,” Iams said. “They were much more cautious in
positioning the Sun Ray systems. They very carefully went after
specific markets, and it seems to be working.”