D3: Scott Defends the Network Computer

Dan Gillmor, formerly of the San Jose Mercury News, now an uber-blogger, asks Scott McNealy, “It sounds like you’re just retreading the network computer. You say that CIOs won’t pay $40 for an alligator shirt any more. Weren’t you an alligator shirt for many years?” Scott: “Yes. Sure. It was great being cool. It was nice having big margins.” Dan: “Well, what happened?” Scott: “People got smart. The margins went away on the desktop.” But Scott, explained, he doesn’t care: the intelligence (and his profits) will derive from the network. “The desktop can be dumb. Really dumb. TV dumb. The PC is a transitional artifact.”