The technology industry was taken by surprise earlier this week, when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison made some unexpected comments about his company’s hardware plans. As described by one source,

… Ellison broadly hinted that Oracle would get into the consumer electronics business, offering netbook-like machines that would compete with the Acers, HPs, Dells, and Lenovos of the world. 

Another source reported Ellison making the following remark:

"I can see lots and lots of Java devices, some coming from our friends at Google," said Ellison. "But I don’t see why some of those devices shouldn’t come from Sun/Oracle." 

Ellison did not give any details, and many observers did not take the comments seriously considering Oracle’s historical roots as a provider of enterprise software. 

Nevertheless, there are several factors that would make Oracle consider a move into the consumer hardware arena, including Oracle’s planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which brings new hardware and software skills and technologies into the Oracle fold. Ellison clearly sees huge potential in Java — at his speech to the JavaOne attendees in San Francisco on Tuesday, he pledged to develop Java applications for phones and netbooks, saying "There will be computers fundamentally based on Java and JavaFX, not only from Google but also from Sun."