A recent article from Reuters reports Sun Microsystems’ new business plan which is based on the presumption that hardware will soon be ‘free’. Well, looking closer at the statement, it’s not exactly ‘free’, but hardware will be available as part of a software/hardware subscription plan.

Schwartz, a spokesperson for Sun, states, “In our world, you will subscribe to the software and the hardware is free”. Additionally, Schwartz sees this model as compatible with Microsoft’s push. “Bill Gates and I agree that within four to five years hardware will be free.”

I can see this model taking off but I wonder what this will mean in in a world where software in many cases has already lost its monetary value. I don’t think anyone will be REALLY paying for software OR hardware but for the service involved in packaging software/hardware and keeping systems updated, working and hacker/virus-free. This isn’t exactly insightful on my part (it’s been happening for years already), but it’s interesting to see how much the computing business model has indeed changed, and continues to be challenged.

See the entire article here:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=5304507