Motorola Inc. and Oracle Corp. teamed last week to create a UNIX-based e-business platform designed for carriers, Internet service providers, enterprise customers and application vendors.
The deal is the second phase of their partnership, following Motorola’s adoption of Oracle’s OracleMobile.com server technology into the Aspira platform earlier this year.
Specifically, the two plan to design a blueprint that speeds deployment, eases development and lowers the cost for those using it. MobileBlueprint Version 1.0 is expected to aid in the creation of mobile e-business applications and their subsequent delivery to wireless Internet devices worldwide. The companies said the result will provide application vendors with development kits based on each company’s technology, as well as providing a systematic framework for wireless carriers, ISPs and developers to better meet their issues of interconnecting disparate subsystems.
The components of the blueprint include WAP and voice server interoperability validation, a Wireless Internet Platform, an application development environment, configuration/deployment guidelines and system requirements.
Motorola’s Personal Network Group is leading the effort. Its first mission is to validate Motorola’s WAP and voice servers with the Oracle9i Application Server Wireless Edition, expected by early next year. Mid-year, the companies plan to complete the remaining steps-integrating into the blueprint elements of Motorola’s Mobile Internet Exchange platform, TrueSync SyncML Server and the Operations, Administration and Maintenance core with Oracle’s Oracle8i Database and Internet Directory.
“This collaboration with Motorola not only allows us to extend our enterprise offerings to the wireless market, but will also allow us to increase the speed and ease of deployment for our customers, and lower their overall cost of using our joint technologies,” said Michael Rocha, senior vice president of Oracle’s Platform Technologies Division.
The architecture’s road map can be viewed at www.mobileblueprint.com, which will be updated as key components to it are added. In addition, a joint Motorola and Oracle development center for future product testing and validation is scheduled to open in January in Redwood Shores, Calif.
The partnership with Oracle is not only the next phase of Motorola’s relationship with the firm, but also a continued evolution of the company’s newfound philosophy of playing better with others. In the past, Motorola had a reputation of keeping innovations and technology in-house and rarely partnered with other businesses. As the Oracle announcement implies, this is no longer the case.
Evidence of the same can be seen in other Motorola relationships. The company announced an initial agreement with Metrowerks to include the firm’s CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment into Motorola’s free iDEN software development kit. CodeWarrior gives developers tools for creating content and applications for wireless devices based on Sun Microsystems’ Java 2 Micro Edition.
Motorola intends to roll out its first J2ME-enabled phones in the first half of next year though its iDEN products. Motorola has several partnerships designed to speed J2ME development, including one with wireless game developer UIEvolution (see story on page 20).
The previous week, Motorola reached an agreement with Lutris Technologies Inc. to allow J2ME-enabled iDEN handsets to access enterprise information on Lutris’ Open Source Enhydra Internet application server.