September 7th, 2004
By way of gov't edict, Sun gets monopoly in South Korea
Is it me, or does this news story make it clear that Sun has been more than just been granted a right-of-way to a monopoly in South Korea? That monopoly has actually been ordered by the South Korean government. By way of policy in South Korea, all phones must support the country’s Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI) specification. Though that specification doesn’t require cell phone manufacturers to make use of Mobile Java, it requires its inclusion. According to one source I found on Qualcomm’s site, approximately 74 percent of South Korea’s 48 million people have cell phones. It’s like the government issued a purchase order for 35.5 million Java licenses. Wow. How did Sun manage that?
