European cell carriers get some Sun

Major European cell phone carriers Orange and T-Mobile Europe will soon require that downloadable games and other data sold to their subscribers meet quality standards set by Sun Microsystems and several major handset makers.

Orange and T-Mobile Europe, which combined have 96 million subscribers, are the first carriers to commit to Sun's Java Verified program, which certifies software programs to ensure that they'll run on different companies' mobile phones. Sun believes that other carriers will be influenced into joining Java Verified as a result.

The announcements are a sign of a "deepening commitment" by both carriers to using Java to power their download services, Sun executives said. Alternative technology is available from Qualcomm, a San Diego-based maker of chips for cell phones.

Sun created Java Verified alongside major handset makers Motorola, Nokia, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. On Thursday, Research in Motion also signed up. The set of tests are meant to ease problems developers have with writing a single Java program that can run on most Internet-enabled handsets.

Running on Java has been a tricky process, with different phones having different features, such as buttons, message handling, processing power, and sound and graphics capabilities. That, in turn, has slowed development of applications that cell phone service providers can sell to help recoup their losses as the price of phone calls continues to drop due to competition.

It's a continuing problem, though it's getting more and more minor, Sun executives said. "There's always some room for improvement," Alan Brenner, Sun's vice president of consumer and mobile systems, said during an interview Thursday.

[cbazza]

JavaVerified = less J2ME apps on the marketplace

For a moment, stop and think if MS-DOS (or Windows)applications required the developers to pay upwards of $400 per machine to get certified for each possible machine available; would there be a market for DOS (or Windows) apps. today ? I don't think so !!!!!

It was the job of the Operating System Company
(Microsoft in this case) to make sure their
software worked properly in all kinds of hardware
and freed developers from having to test and do
custom coding for each machine. That's what Java is supposed to do, isn't it ? So why doesn't Sun force complete testing and certification of the specific J2ME implementations so they are 100% compatible, instead of forcing third party developers to do their work.

This "Java Verified" program will blow up on their
face. It is nothing more than wrong attempt to fix
their widespread incompatible problems.


Carlos Bazzarella.