Sun's Project Vector, which will be launched at JavaOne this week as the Java Store, is a network service to connect companies of all sizes and types to the roughly one billion Java users all over the world. According to Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz it "has the potential to deliver the world's largest audience to developers and businesses leveraging Java and JavaFX."

Writing on his industry-leading blog, in advance of this week's show, Schwartz asked the rhetorical question "What kinds of companies might be interested?"

Here was his answer:

"If you talk to a Fortune 500 company or a startup, pretty much everyone craves access to consumers - which is the one problem we've solved with the Java platform. Most folks don't think of Sun as a consumer company, and largely we're not, but our runtimes reach more consumers than just about any other company on earth. That ubiquity has obvious value to search companies, but it's also quite valuable to banks looking to sign up new accounts, sports franchises looking for new viewers, media companies and news organizations looking for new subscribers - basically, any Java developer looking to escape the browser to reach a billion or so consumers.

 

How will it work? Candidate applications will be submitted via a simple web site, evaluated by Sun for safety and content, then presented under free or fee terms to the broad Java audience via our update mechanism. Over time, developers will bid for position on our storefront, and the relationships won't be exclusive (as they have been for search). As with other app stores, Sun will charge for distribution - but unlike other app stores, whose audiences are tiny, measured in the millions or tens of millions, ours will have what we estimate to be approximately a billion users. That's clearly a lot of traffic, and will position the Java App Store as having just about the world's largest audience.

This creates opportunity for everyone in the developer community - and specifically, for any developer (even those not using Java/JavaFX) seeking to reach beyond the browser to create a durable relationship with their customers. ... Remember, when apps are distributed through the Java Store, they're distributed directly to the desktop - JavaFX enables developers, businesses and content owners to bypass potentially hostile browsers."

Full details will be revealed at this week's JavaOne, Schwartz noted.