CANNES, France-Sun Microsystems Inc. today sought to dust off its somewhat tarnished image in wireless with a series of new announcements and product upgrades. Perhaps most importantly, the company officially launched its application certification program, which Sun announced almost a year ago.
“We want to emphasize where Sun has been winning,” said Juan Dewar, the company’s senior director of product marketing for consumer mobile systems.
To underscore his point, Dewar said 77 carriers around the world have launched Java application download services, and that more than 30 handset manufacturers have shipped more than 250 million phones capable of running Java applications.
However, Java technology has been modified to various degrees to fit in each of its various markets, leading some in the wireless industry to complain of its fractured nature. In part to address such concerns, Sun last year announced its intent to offer an application certification program that essentially would endorse developers and their applications.
Today, Sun announced its certification program is up and running, and that developers will be able to submit their applications to ensure they work smoothly over various handset models. In conjunction with the program, Sun also said it will provide a catalog on its Java.com Web site of the thousands of Java applications available worldwide.
In other news, Sun said it will release a new version of its content delivery server for sale to wireless carriers, which will include upgraded support for viral marketing, premium text messaging and other features. Sun also upgraded its Java virtual machine, which is for sale to mobile-phone manufacturers.
