Vince Vasquez, a group business development manager at Sun, discussed plans for a variety of networked consumer electronics products using a host of network types supported by a range of OEMs and service providers — all linked by common Java-based middleware. "This is happening now," said Vasquez, who manages what Sun calls its "dot-com home" initiative. "The technical trials are this summer, and the products will roll out in time for this Christmas or the first quarter of 2001."

For example, Vasquez said, Sunbeam is developing networked alarm clocks, coffee makers and electric blankets; Whirlpool is preparing refrigerator-based Web Pads; and telecom service provider GTE is rolling out packages of Java-based phone services.

Sun's initiative comes at the same time as Microsoft Corp.'s attempt to expand the use of Windows operating system variants in embedded systems like home networked devices. Microsoft is expected to release more detailed plans at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in New Orleans next week, and in subsequent briefings on a new class of Windows services it has yet to define.

Contrary to popular belief, home networks will not be expensive or difficult to set up, Vasquez said. For example, Sunbeam, using its Home Linking Technology (HLT) approach, will deliver alarm clocks that can check time or weather over the Internet, electric blankets that turn off when a bedroom light turns on and coffee makers that start to brew when an electric blanket goes off.

"At the end of the day, you will be able to go to Sears and buy a network-ready dishwasher or a non-networked dishwasher and the cost difference will be ten dollars," he said, suggesting that Sunbeam's and others' networked appliances may cost only slightly more than existing consumer goods.

Aiming for middle America

"This stuff is really aiming for mass markets in middle America. It's not just for the Bill Gateses of the world," Vasquez added.

Sun's rush to establish the networked home is driven by a desire to see its Java and Jini software gain a foothold in next-generation devices. If Sun can convince hardware, software and service companies to support its vision with a bevy of Java-ready products, it can enable a world of Java-based applications to drive Sun's sales of back-end servers and software for the dot-com home.

Sun has enlisted other industry heavyweights to work toward its vision: Cisco Systems will develop home gateways using Java; Sony will deliver products using Java in its HAVi middleware; and Sears will act as a distributor of networked consumer goods.

Sun's partners, Vasquez said, share the same goal. "Sunbeam, Whirlpool and GTE all want to have a portal in the home so they can have a platform to offer services," he said. Similarly, Sears could use networked links to deliver online repair and diagnostics, and information about sales of other products. "At the end of the day its all about who has access" to such revenue streams, he said.

Sun is participating in a software standards effort to achieve its agenda. Dubbed the Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGI), the standards group seeks to define a way for various hardware devices and applications programs to interact.

Sun's implementation of the OSGI standard is called Java Embedded Server, a middleware layer that acts to start, stop and manage multiple applications. The server software fits into a few hundred kbytes of code and rides on top of a Java Virtual machine, Vasquez said. However, more robust devices handling groups of heftier applications might opt for more industrial-strength versions of the software, he suggested.

While Sun sketched out its high-level plans in announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, it has yet to fully detail the products and services that will come from the initiative. Those will be announced in the next several weeks, Vasquez said.

In some respects, the Sun initiative is reminiscent of the push for interactive TV in the early 1990s. At that time, Sun worked with a variety of OEMs and service providers to establish a network architecture linked to its technologies and competing with the PC-based approaches of Microsoft and Intel. Interactive TV failed, but Sun's software efforts gave birth to Java as a hardware-agnostic programming tool with built-in security for networked environments.

"We need to have a standard for the networked home that is open and independent of any one operating system," Vasquez said.

However, the home network initiative faces huge challenges that could derail the efforts early on. It's not clear, for instance, whether the partners have defined applications or services of interest to consumers. In addition, whether OEMs will be willing and able to price smart devices at low premiums over today's products to entice rapid adoption remains to be seen. Another open question is whether cheap but effective power line, phone line or wireless networks will become available to handle such networked devices and applications.

Nevertheless, Vasquez made a compelling pitch to an audience of about 100 communications designers here. "This is a huge opportunity to deliver new services and applications, and if you are an OEM and are not making networked gear, you are going to be left out," he said.