The 2003 JavaOne Developer Conference witnessed a collision of giants as Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM Corp. pushed their platforms, highlighting a division within a technology that seeks to avoid segmentation.
Sun announced that wireless heavyweights like Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp., Siemens AG and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. have agreed to use Sun’s mobile platform known as Sun One Studio, which includes the Sun One Portal server and Mobile Access 6.2 product.
In a score for its own ecosystem, IBM said major device and software makers have agreed to use its middleware platforms for a variety of applications based on Java technology. The company’s platform is known as WebSphere and the mobile offering is known as the WebSphere Micro Environment. They all are under the company’s open source development architecture known as Eclipse.
IBM said a number of companies have agreed to use its WME including Palm Inc. and QNX, but analysts think Sun continues to have the edge with more prominent mobile vendors backing its platform.
“Device manufacturers and developers are gravitating toward software and solutions that allow them to easily tie their devices and applications into the expanding heterogeneous network of connectedness. Java is the layer they are writing to,” said Rod Adkins, general manager of IBM’s pervasive computing division.
Both companies regard their systems as open.
“Java technology, and the community of millions of Java developers, have made mobility with security a reality with mass deployments over multiple networks, devices and technology platforms,” said Alan Brenner, vice president, consumer and mobile systems group at Sun.
Other companies like Oracle Corp. and BEA Systems have tried in the past to pit their platforms against Sun.
IBM said the company provides tools that allow all companies to write their programs within an open system, explaining that its Eclipse has listed up to 100 firms.
Nokia linked its device software development kit to IBM’s WebSphere studio device developer using Eclipse.
“Together the tools form an integrated workbench that allows individuals or teams of developers to create, test and deploy enterprise applications that will run on Nokia handsets,” said IBM. But Nokia said it does not use IBM’s WME product for its handset.
The only big wireless name signed on to WME seems to be Palm with its Tungsten device. The company said it will integrate and ship IBM WebSphere Micro Environment with its Palm Tungsten range of handheld computers. Applications such as enterprise resource planning, customer management and mobile work force applications, will be extended to the handhelds with access to databases, portals, messaging and instant messaging capabilities.
QNX said it will integrate WME with its operating system to allow developers to build consumer electronics, robotic controllers, retail automation systems and telematics unit applications.
“From a simple check-engine light that indicates the car needs to be serviced, to transmitting (global positioning system) coordinates to emergency services when an airbag event occurs, IBM and QNX offer automotive manufacturers and tier-one integrators the products on which to build end-to-end telematics solutions that provide drivers, passengers and service providers with the information they need, when they need it,” said Dan Dodge, CEO of QNX.
