3GSM: Sun, Openwave to merge Java, browsing

BARCELONA, SPAIN--Sun Microsystems and Openwave today announced they would collaborate to create a development platform that would meld Java and XML, allowing developers to build Java applications with embedded browser access.

Sun, the leading Java developer, and Openwave, the leader in mobile browsers, have agreed to create open interfaces between Sun’s mobile and micro versions of Java and Openwave’s Mobile Integrated Dynamic Application System (MIDAS), a XML-based scripted application environment.

“Today there is no consistent way to link Java applications to the browser,” said Eric Chu, senior director of the Sun client systems group. “You have to launch two separate applications and go back and forth between [them]. Some handsets can do it and some can’t, but no handset can merge the two together.”

To access the mobile Internet from a Java application, the user has to launch the browser separately, and a Java application has to be initiated outside of the browser. This new technology will allow developers to embed XML mark-up language directly into Java applications, Chu said. For instance, a golfing game could have a live stream of top scores from around the world updated in real-time scrolling across the screen. Or an enterprise expense application could access current international exchange rates and plug them into a report as it is being compiled, Chu said.

The companies plan to release a software development kit containing the APIs, debugging tools and device emulators to create these kinds of joint Java-XML apps.