Allianz von dreißig hochkarätigen Unternehmen bieten MSFT an beizutreten :-)))
Wednesday September 26 6:47 PM ET
Sun, Partners Challenge Microsoft on Net
I.D.
By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Network
computer maker Sun Microsystems
Inc.(Nasdaq:SUNW - news) and more than
30 other companies on Wednesday unveiled
plans for a personal identification system to
smooth commerce on the Internet, while
allowing users to decide who holds sensitive
information about them.
The project, which calls itself the Liberty Alliance, represents a clear
challenge to Passport, Microsoft Corp's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)
competing and controversial system, which is also the early leader in the
field.
The consortium of companies said they invited Microsoft to link its
Passport technology to the planned system, but a Microsoft executive
said he knew of no talks and accused Sun of trying to trip up its
competition.
Liberty includes Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC - news), General
Motors Corp.(NYSE:GM - news), online auctioneer eBay
Inc.(Nasdaq:EBAY - news) and mobile handset maker Nokia (news -
web sites) Ab Oy(NOK1V.HE), among others, and it has courted
Internet service provider American Online (NYSE:AOL - news),
although AOL declined to comment.
The Liberty group aims to give consumers secure, private identities so
that they can do business more readily on the Internet and with mobile
phones.
Data would be accessible through a single sign-on for convenience but
could be stored with various competing companies -- a key difference
with Microsoft's Passport system, which has been criticized as giving
too much sensitive data to a single company.
``Basically that is the beauty of the system. The consumer maintains
control,'' Marge Breya, chief marketing officer of Sun's iPlanet
E-Commerce group, said in a telephone interview.
The Liberty project hopefully could launch in six months but plans
remain tentative, Breya said.
MICROSOFT FRIEND OR FOE?
Microsoft, which said last week it would expand Passport to include
other companies, could emerge as a chief ally or opponent of Liberty.
Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive and a vocal Microsoft critic, told
a conference call Microsoft would be able to set some terms for their
participation.
``It is really going to be up to AOL-Time Warner and Microsoft
whether they want to interoperate,'' he said.
Adam Sohn, product manager for Microsoft's .NET platform strategy
group, said he would be willing to talk about joining Passport, which has
165 million accounts, to Liberty, but had not done so.
``It's standard Sun practice to make these kind of announcements with
not a lot of detail,'' Sohn said. ``I think it's an attempt to sort of slow
others down.''
AOL, which is a joint venture partner with Sun in the iPlanet
e-commerce project and is working on its own Net identity project,
Magic Carpet, is considering its options, a spokesman said, declining to
comment specifically on Liberty.
DON'T TRY TO 'BOIL THE OCEAN'
Doubts about Liberty's prospects sprang up immediately among analysts
who said the technology would be tough to perfect and agreement hard
to reach among partners.
Giga Group's Rob Enderle said Sun and AOL would have to join forces
to counter Microsoft and the fact that they had not done so yet was
problematic. The Liberty group would find it tough to agree on
standards, delaying the product, he said.
Microsoft is often accused of announcing ``vaporware'' products before
they are ready to head off competitors, but in this case it is the only
major player on the field.
``Microsoft's product offering has a lot of flaws, but it will be there.
Better-but-not-there is not really better,'' Enderle said.
``My ultimate take was that it was a press release to counter Passport,''
said Yankee analyst Neal Goldman.
Liberty technology would have to be absolutely bulletproof, given the
huge stakes riding on an e-commerce platform, he said, although Liberty
members said technology was the easiest step and that companies were
committed.
``There is both manpower and money,'' Nokia's chief technology
officer, Mikko Terho, told the call.
But the group is only starting to design the system, work out a way to
brand it and address issues such as security.
Liberty would build the lowest common denominator between some
current systems in order to link them, rather than build something from
scratch.
``We've got to make sure that this is not an exercise to boil the ocean,''
said Internet media company RealNetworks Inc.(Nasdaq:RNWK -
news) Chief Executive Rob Glaser, urging the group to keep its goals
reasonable.
Liberty Alliance Project members include ActivCard SA
(Nasdaq:ACTI - news), American Airlines, the Apache Software
Foundation, Bank of America Corp., Bell Canada Enterprises
(NYSE:BCE - news), Cingular Wireless, Cisco Systems Inc.
(Nasdaq:CSCO - news), eBay, CollabNet, Dun and Bradstreet Corp.
(NYSE:DNB - news), eBay, Entrust Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTU - news),
Fidelity Investments, Gemplus International (GEPL.PA)(Nasdaq:GEMP
- news), General Motors, Global Crossing (NYSE:GX - news), i2
Technologies Inc.(Nasdaq:ITWO - news), Intuit Inc.(Nasdaq:INTU -
news), Liberate Technologies Inc.(Nasdaq:LBRT - news), Nokia, NTT
DoCoMo (news - web sites) Inc.(9437.T), Openwave Systems
Inc.(Nasdaq:OPWV - news), O'Reilly and Associates, RealNetworks,
RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq:RSAS - news), Sabre Holdings Corp.
(NYSE:TSG - news), Schlumberger Ltd.(NYSE:SLB - news), Sony
Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T), Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news),
Travelocity.com Inc (Nasdaq:TVLY - news), United Airlines
(NYSE:UAL - news), VeriSign Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN - news) and
Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L).
Sun shares ended off 25 cents to $8.44 and Microsoft fell $1.03 to $50.27 on the Nasdaq.
Gruß Dr. Broemme
Wednesday September 26 6:47 PM ET
Sun, Partners Challenge Microsoft on Net
I.D.
By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Network
computer maker Sun Microsystems
Inc.(Nasdaq:SUNW - news) and more than
30 other companies on Wednesday unveiled
plans for a personal identification system to
smooth commerce on the Internet, while
allowing users to decide who holds sensitive
information about them.
The project, which calls itself the Liberty Alliance, represents a clear
challenge to Passport, Microsoft Corp's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)
competing and controversial system, which is also the early leader in the
field.
The consortium of companies said they invited Microsoft to link its
Passport technology to the planned system, but a Microsoft executive
said he knew of no talks and accused Sun of trying to trip up its
competition.
Liberty includes Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC - news), General
Motors Corp.(NYSE:GM - news), online auctioneer eBay
Inc.(Nasdaq:EBAY - news) and mobile handset maker Nokia (news -
web sites) Ab Oy(NOK1V.HE), among others, and it has courted
Internet service provider American Online (NYSE:AOL - news),
although AOL declined to comment.
The Liberty group aims to give consumers secure, private identities so
that they can do business more readily on the Internet and with mobile
phones.
Data would be accessible through a single sign-on for convenience but
could be stored with various competing companies -- a key difference
with Microsoft's Passport system, which has been criticized as giving
too much sensitive data to a single company.
``Basically that is the beauty of the system. The consumer maintains
control,'' Marge Breya, chief marketing officer of Sun's iPlanet
E-Commerce group, said in a telephone interview.
The Liberty project hopefully could launch in six months but plans
remain tentative, Breya said.
MICROSOFT FRIEND OR FOE?
Microsoft, which said last week it would expand Passport to include
other companies, could emerge as a chief ally or opponent of Liberty.
Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive and a vocal Microsoft critic, told
a conference call Microsoft would be able to set some terms for their
participation.
``It is really going to be up to AOL-Time Warner and Microsoft
whether they want to interoperate,'' he said.
Adam Sohn, product manager for Microsoft's .NET platform strategy
group, said he would be willing to talk about joining Passport, which has
165 million accounts, to Liberty, but had not done so.
``It's standard Sun practice to make these kind of announcements with
not a lot of detail,'' Sohn said. ``I think it's an attempt to sort of slow
others down.''
AOL, which is a joint venture partner with Sun in the iPlanet
e-commerce project and is working on its own Net identity project,
Magic Carpet, is considering its options, a spokesman said, declining to
comment specifically on Liberty.
DON'T TRY TO 'BOIL THE OCEAN'
Doubts about Liberty's prospects sprang up immediately among analysts
who said the technology would be tough to perfect and agreement hard
to reach among partners.
Giga Group's Rob Enderle said Sun and AOL would have to join forces
to counter Microsoft and the fact that they had not done so yet was
problematic. The Liberty group would find it tough to agree on
standards, delaying the product, he said.
Microsoft is often accused of announcing ``vaporware'' products before
they are ready to head off competitors, but in this case it is the only
major player on the field.
``Microsoft's product offering has a lot of flaws, but it will be there.
Better-but-not-there is not really better,'' Enderle said.
``My ultimate take was that it was a press release to counter Passport,''
said Yankee analyst Neal Goldman.
Liberty technology would have to be absolutely bulletproof, given the
huge stakes riding on an e-commerce platform, he said, although Liberty
members said technology was the easiest step and that companies were
committed.
``There is both manpower and money,'' Nokia's chief technology
officer, Mikko Terho, told the call.
But the group is only starting to design the system, work out a way to
brand it and address issues such as security.
Liberty would build the lowest common denominator between some
current systems in order to link them, rather than build something from
scratch.
``We've got to make sure that this is not an exercise to boil the ocean,''
said Internet media company RealNetworks Inc.(Nasdaq:RNWK -
news) Chief Executive Rob Glaser, urging the group to keep its goals
reasonable.
Liberty Alliance Project members include ActivCard SA
(Nasdaq:ACTI - news), American Airlines, the Apache Software
Foundation, Bank of America Corp., Bell Canada Enterprises
(NYSE:BCE - news), Cingular Wireless, Cisco Systems Inc.
(Nasdaq:CSCO - news), eBay, CollabNet, Dun and Bradstreet Corp.
(NYSE:DNB - news), eBay, Entrust Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTU - news),
Fidelity Investments, Gemplus International (GEPL.PA)(Nasdaq:GEMP
- news), General Motors, Global Crossing (NYSE:GX - news), i2
Technologies Inc.(Nasdaq:ITWO - news), Intuit Inc.(Nasdaq:INTU -
news), Liberate Technologies Inc.(Nasdaq:LBRT - news), Nokia, NTT
DoCoMo (news - web sites) Inc.(9437.T), Openwave Systems
Inc.(Nasdaq:OPWV - news), O'Reilly and Associates, RealNetworks,
RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq:RSAS - news), Sabre Holdings Corp.
(NYSE:TSG - news), Schlumberger Ltd.(NYSE:SLB - news), Sony
Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T), Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news),
Travelocity.com Inc (Nasdaq:TVLY - news), United Airlines
(NYSE:UAL - news), VeriSign Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN - news) and
Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L).
Sun shares ended off 25 cents to $8.44 and Microsoft fell $1.03 to $50.27 on the Nasdaq.
Gruß Dr. Broemme
