In his keynote speech at the recent Object World West conference in San Francisco, Landry presented a fascinating view of how he thinks the focus of the computing indust ry will move away from desktop software and towards Java-based, on-line e-commerce applications.

First off, Landry has turned Sun Microsystems chairman Scott McNealy's famous aphorism, "The network is the computer," on its ear. "We're entering the 'age of access'--everybody's going to have access to the network," he said. "It's the beginning of the era of the wired consumer."

In other words, the K-mart shopper could become the primary driver of the Web. Instead of cruising down to the mall to wander through aisles cluttered with merchandise, that consumer will turn on his or her WebTV and surf the Net in search of bargains. Or, as Landry explained it: "You will have Web sites where you'll register what you want to buy--from wine to insurance--and people will come to you to provide it."

Framed more succinctly, what Landry is saying (with apologies to McNealy) is, "The consumer is the network."

As the tilt towards e-commerce becomes mor e pronounced, companies that don't "get it" will be left behind. The big winners will be new kinds of pacesetting on-line vendors--call them "bit-based businesses"--that will make conventional paper-bound corporations look as obsolete as automobiles did horse-drawn carriages.

To give meat to his message, Landry presented some fascinating examples.

Most interesting was the advance word he leaked of a coming venture between Eastman Kodak Co. and IBM, which won't be publicly announced for several months. It seems the photo giant realizes that a business model driven by silver-based film won't wash in an era where electronic imaging has become the norm. So Kodak will enable consumers to move from point-and-shoot to point-and-click.

Here's how it will work: You'll drop off your film at the corner store or mail it in to Kodak, just like you do today. But instead of picking up finished prints, Kodak will e-mail you a Web addre ss along with a personal password where you--and only you--can go to view your snapshots. You can download the pictures you like in the form of high-resolution files, or you can have then delivered in the mail as normal 5-by-7 prints. An on-line Java applet will even let you crop and modify your pictures. (But will it eliminate "red-eye"?)

Since such high-res images will require huge amounts of storage space, IBM will clean up by operating the servers and disk-farms that will host these on-line photos.

Sounds like a prescription for e-commerce success to me.

Another company well positioned for the Web changes that lie ahead is none other than Microsoft. Landry notes that Bill Gates and company are moving very aggressively into business that are far afield of their core software products. These include e-commerce offerings like the Expedia travel service and the Carpoint automobile-shopping network.

Just which technologies will drive this e-commerce revolution? If you believe the stalwarts of the Wintel world, Windows will make the leap to the Web--something Microsoft is already trying to do by embracing Java.

For his part, Landry worries that Microsoft is perverting the intent of Java by turning it into a technology that's too tightly linked to the company's operating systems. "If you're going to build a platform for electronic commerce, you're going to have to choose between the Klingons [i.e., Microsoft] and the Federation," is how he put it. The good guys, according to Landry, are the "pure Java" advocates like Javasoft, Sun and (of course) IBM.

Only time will tell if Landry is right. But remember that, a few years ago, IBM was counted out. Now its back, big-time. So don't be so quick to give up on Microsoft.

What's your take on the e-commerce future? Tell us about it in our Wintel Watch Forum.

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