Sun Microsystems plans to release pricing for server software under its ambitious Orion strategy within the next two months, the company's top software executive said Tuesday.
"We'll have finalized pricing hopefully in the next 30 to 60 days," said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software for Sun, speaking at Merrill Lynch's Hardware Heaven conference in San Francisco. Based on an earlier conversation with Schwartz, Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich said he expects pricing to range between $100 and $200 per employee.
Pricing will be a critical factor for the success or failure of Orion, Sun's strategy to release its entire collection of server software products once per quarter and charge customers for the entire suite solely on the basis of how many employees they have. Sun argues that the pricing plan is simpler and cheaper than alternatives from IBM and Microsoft, but that the Sun Open Network Environment (Sun ONE) suite that makes up the bulk of Orion hasn't had the success of those competitors' offerings.
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