CELLPHONE SOFTWARE - Companies seek to encourage J2ME innovation
boston.com
Hoping to train the best young minds of America on developing innovative new software applications for cellphones, Nextel Communications, Motorola, and Sun Microsystems are running a contest through Nov. 1 with $45,000 in prizes for the best college- and university-oriented software programs.
Nextel and its business allies hope college students might be interested in developing ways to download to Java-enabled wireless phones class test scores, lecture notes, course announcements and assignments, or interactive student and faculty directories. A way to use your phone to find the best weekend party could even qualify.
The companies' overall goal is to encourage creation of Java-powered programs in cellphones to ''make university life easier.'' Top prize is a $20,000 scholarship and two Nextel phones with a year's free $70-a-month service, with runners-up eligible for $10,000 and $5,000 prizes.
As more than 30 million cellphones embedded with Sun's Java software have been shipped around the world, including 2 million US Nextel units, Sun and Motorola are eager to see more Java-based applications to pump up demand for the phones. (Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS are cooking up hundreds of cellphone games and applications to run on a comparable Qualcomm-made platform called BREW, or ''binary runtime environment for wireless.'') Nextel contest applications are at developer.nextel.com. |
