Sun enters mobile content aggregation fray

Sun Microsystems announced at the 3GSM World Congress that it is expanding its popular Java.com Web site to support content aggregation, including back-office and payment mechanisms, for mobile operators including Java applications, ring tones, screen savers and wallpapers for a wide range of mobile Java devices.

The site has primarily been a consumer stop on the Web for all things Java, and currently is visited by about 7 million consumers per month. However, "content developers and mobile operators were wanting us to step in and do this for them," said Craig Miller, group marketing manager for Sun’s carrier solutions group. We don’t develop the content, but we facilitate the relationships."

Sun’s entry into content aggregation could shake up the young but explosive market for mobile content development and aggregation. While large content developers, such as gaming companies and major film and TV studios, are trying to work directly with carriers, developers of single applications or localized content are working with a handful of smaller content aggregators to take their case to carriers.

Miller said mobile operators can save money by going through Java.com because they can easily get market-certified applications without going through the pains of searching for and negotiating with individual applications developers. "The carriers want to manage a handful of content relationships, mostly with the biggest content developers, but at the end of the month, they would just like to cut a check for the rest."

Sun also was making a wide range of other announcements at 3GSM, including the release of version 4.0 of its content delivery server, which now supports customer management features, such as segmentation of customer bases, multi-content vending for different classes of subscribers and more support for active content marketing.