In '95 I remember going to an excellent Smalltalk course. A year later that lecturer was working for IBM on Java. IBM '96 also bought and then shifted an excellent Software Configuration Management System by OTI towards Java (aka. Eclipse). IBM contributed a huge part of Java networking code too.

Java seems to be leaving a gap for various technical reasons. Java also may be seen by some as having strategic challenges under the Oracle stewardship. Go, Swift, Node and others are currently trying to exploit it.

Java took off not the least due to IBM stepping into the SUN court. Now IBM steps into the Apple court...