Further extending its reach into the wireless industry, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced it has signed an agreement giving L.M. Ericsson license to use and distribute its PersonalJava platform and Java Application Environment.
The Ericsson announcement comes less than two months after Motorola Inc. announced it signed a licensing agreement with Sun to incorporate the full family of Java technologies into its entire portfolio of consumer and embedded products, which Sun called Java’s largest licensing agreement.
Other wireless manufacturers committing to Java are Nokia Corp., Texas Instruments’ Wireless Communications Business Unit, Alcatel Telecom, Northern Telecom Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Java is a programming language that allows developers to create applications that can be used by various devices even if they are powered by different operating systems.
Java-written applications exist on a shared network server, rather than on the device itself.
Individual applications are downloaded to the device upon request, when needed, rather than stored on the end-user device.
The technology first gained popularity in computer networks.
A program developer would create an application and store it on the Internet or corporate intranet. Anyone wishing to use that program need only have access to whatever network on which it was stored.
PersonalJava was designed specifically for consumer devices with small display screens. It allows wireless phones and pagers access to a large number of applications without having them stored on the device itself.
The incorporation of the technology into wireless devices opens up new doors to an industry looking to offer a new base of value-added applications from which carriers can draw to offer differentiated services while keeping the actual devices small.
“The big difference will be the provisioning of the network,” said Paul Tempest-Mitchell, manager of systems engineering for Sun Microsystems’ Worldwide Telecommunications and Cable Organization.
Java-enabled devices allow customers to use the applications they like and are comfortable with as they switch or add models. So if you get a new phone that has a longer battery life or talk time or greater sensitivity, you don’t have to lose the applications you liked so much on the old phone.
Also, because the same application can be used on various models of phones, the applications cost less because the carrier doesn’t have to write a new version of the application for each type of device, he said.
Even further, a wireless subscriber can extend his favorite computer application to his wireless device, as long as that application is written in Java, allowing for even more application customability.
“It will give you access to a broader range of services,” Tempest-Mitchell said.
Ericsson said it intends to use the Java-based technology to support the development of third generation products and systems based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access.
Jan Ahrenbring, vice president of Ericsson’s mobile phone group, said the agreement will allow the company to bring a greater range of applications traditionally used only at the home or office workstation to the mobile environment. “With Java, the foundation is there to really develop these kinds of applications,” he said.
Bringing Internet connectivity to phones alone is expected to be a major application. Ericsson, and others with licensing agreements with Java, have not yet defined what other applications they hope to bring to their devices.
Pagers can benefit from the technology as well, such as enabling a pager to run a constant stock ticker across the display screen.
The most recent paging-related Java announcement to date is more of a computer application than a pager device one. Absolutely Software Inc. released the JPage system, which uses Java’s “thin client” concept to allow any PC outfitted with an Internet browser to send a page to any carrier’s subscriber or group of subscribers on various carriers.
Once at the appropriate web page, the Internet browser queries the Java server and is given a list of paging subscribers able to receive pages.
The user then selects the individual or group he wants to reach and sends either a numeric or alphanumeric message. JPage sends the message via a TCP/IP connection to Microsoft Corp.’s Air Apparent server, which then dials the paging carrier and sends the page to its network and finally to the individual being paged.
According to Tempest-Mitchell, Java may have enjoyed its initial success in the computer network environment, but was designed more specifically for telephony purposes. “We envisioned Java as a telephony product to start with,” he said. “Its most popular areas have been in the telephony industry.”
Java’s motto is “the network is the computer.”
Because there are so many devices on any given wireless network, Tempest-Mitchell said Java could likely see its greatest success in the wireless environment because it allows an application to stay with the individual at all times.
“You have an environment where you can run a service anytime, anywhere to anyone,” he said.
“We’re enabling people to derive the value out of mobile devices. You have a channel to reach a person all over the world.”
