Help for WAP?
(Emphasis added)
Sun Cites Java Gains In Wireless
10:00 AM GMT on Sep 04, 2000
[This Week In Consumer Electronics]
Sun Microsystems claimed gains in its efforts to encourage wireless phone and two-way pager makers to adopt its J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) platform.
The technology would add computing applications to wireless devices and applications that could potentially exchange data with client-server applications residing on corporate servers or on content-provider servers. These applications could be downloaded wirelessly to the portable devices from the server.
In addition, phone- resident contact lists and calendars could be updated wirelessly by an executive assistant through a J2ME-equipped enterprise server. Wireless multiplayer gaming is another potential application.
Recent gains for J2ME include Nokia's plans in 2001 to join Motorola in adding J2ME to select Web-browsing phones, said Bob Tennant, group manager for Sun's J2ME platform. Motorola's first J2ME phone, operating on U.S. iDEN networks, will be available in the fall.
In addition, Ericsson plans a hybrid PDA/phone incorporating the technology, and two-way pager maker Research In Motion told TWICE through a spokeswoman that it "expects to be shipping Java-enabled handhelds broadly in the fall time frame."
Also, Japanese wireless carrier DoCoMo plans to introduce J2ME later this year for its next-generation i-Mode content services, and Korean carrier LG Telecom plans to add J2ME services, Tennant said.
Both carriers' plans could help spur the development of J2ME applications by third-party developers, in turn spurring U.S. carriers to implement similar services.
DoCoMo uses a proprietary platform to deliver these types of services through third-party content pro-viders, so the carrier can't take advantage of a platform, such as J2ME, that "has a huge developer community," Tennant noted.
J2ME could also be integrated with WAP browsers to enable the phone to access sites marked for WAP-browser access and to download Java applications from WAP-enabled sites.
Unlike current WAP phones, however, J2ME will deliver "better graphics and a richer user experience, including pull-down menus and ability to download applications," Tennant said.
In further contrasting J2ME and WAP, he pointed out that J2ME provides for intelligence in the handset itself so that data such as contact lists could reside in the phone for faster access. "WAP is a network-only model," he noted, requiring such things as contact lists to reside on an enterprise or carrier server.
In implementing a WAP browser in a J2ME environment, however, subscribers could get some advantages over other WAP browsers, including the ability to download new versions of WAP browsers if the WAP standard evolves, said Tennant.
In contrasting J2ME capabilities against phones and pagers that incorporate embedded contact-list, appointment-calendar and game applications, he said those devices use proprietary handset-manufacturer platforms that third-party developers don't write to.
In addition, the application software is burned into the phone and can't be upgraded at a later date.
Those handsets' burned-in games, added Tennant, don't deliver the graphics, interactivity and response that J2ME phones would, nor do they offer the potential of multiplayer network gaming.
J2ME phones require at least 256K of memory, including nonvolatile read-only memory and RAM, to store and use application programs, but all WAP-equipped phones already feature that capability, he said, and the cost of adding J2ME software to such phones is "nominal."
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