Openwave Systems Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. this week will unveil an agreement to share technologies in an effort to whittle time-to-market for applications from operators and software developers.
The companies will share technologies to produce a software development toolkit that integrates Sun’s Java Platform with Openwave’s XML-based Mobile Integrated Dynamic Application System. The toolkit will produce a standardized platform that will boost development time and lower costs for building new applications, according to Martin Dunsby, senior vice president and general manager of global services for Openwave.
“It’s been very much a static kind of environment; the only way to upgrade (a handset) really was to throw it away and get a brand new one,” said Dunsby. “This allows operators to deploy new capabilities to their subscribers without having to churn the handset.”
Openwave-like nearly every other developer at this week’s show, seemingly-will also announce plans to jump on the mobile TV bandwagon. The company will partner with wireless video providers IceTV and Nexage to deliver real-time and video-on-demand content to MIDAS handsets.
Finally, the developer will announce a network-based delivery offering for operators looking to send personalized messages and content to subscribers. Dubbed “Mobile Edge,” the product can determine appropriate times to send a message-delaying a sports update while a user writes a text message, for example-and can build user profiles to send customized content to each user.
Openwave was among the first to gain substantial traction producing mobile Web browsers, and hopes to build on that success by helping carriers exploit the benefits of controlling wireless networks. While Opera Software ASA, Novarra and others have made headlines recently with next-generation browsers, Dunsby said Openwave is working to present users with valuable data offerings that maximize revenues even as they minimize network traffic.
While the Googles and Yahoos of the world begin to crash the gates of wireless, operators need to use the tools that networks give them, Dunsby urged.
“(We) allow carriers to do security, to do appropriateness of use, to do all kinds of content filtering and modification, reporting and personalization,” Dunsby said. “That’s going to become more and more important as you start doing things like having people do Internet browsing (on their phones). The only place that can happen is on the edge of the carrier network … not through a new box or new product.”
