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Mobile device users are gobbling up new mobile applications like candy: games, ring tones, messaging, and "the next big thing" are all on the menu. Network operators love mobile applications because they are an important new source of revenue, enterprises love them because they hold potential to streamline operations, and consumers love them because, well, handheld games and mobile chat are lots of fun. All of these groups are hungry for newer, better applications, and they're willing to pay to get them. Large and small businesses and public service organizations are now starting to use on mobile devices mission-critical applications that until now were available only from a desktop, in an office. A sampling of the kinds of applications being deployed right now includes sales force automation, field services, and compelling new services based on the user's location. Research and consulting firm the Yankee Group estimates that, as of June 2003, more than 97 million Java technology-enabled mobile devices had been deployed. Since then, the numbers have been growing steadily. Projections from technology research and consulting firm Ovum estimate more than 267 million Java technology-enabled devices on the market by early 2004, and more than 1.5 billion by the end of 2007. More than 50 network operators use wireless Java technology worldwide. Developers of mobile applications are increasingly taking advantage of wireless Java technology to earn money from their creative abilities. There are tens of thousands of Java technology-based applications on the market today, but far more are demanded. Support and Training from the Java Community In addition to its efficiency and popularity, the Java platform is bolstered by a dedicated and highly active community whose members are working hard to build a Java technology-rich mobile marketplace. This unique worldwide community is available 24-7 to provide developers with the tools, support, and assistance they need to create next-generation mobile applications. One of the best access points to this community is the Sun Developer Network Mobility Program. Sun Microsystems, which originally developed Java technology, created this haven for wireless Java technology developers so that they could meet, educate themselves, discover opportunities, participate in discussion forums, and share ideas. Membership in the program is free and offers developers the resources to create, test, and certify their applications. The program also acts as a high-profile showcase for displaying developers' applications to network operators, mobile handset manufacturers, and consumers. Other benefits include:
Diagram outlining the sun developer network mobility program from entry to consumer showcase site:
 The SDN Mobility Program Overview diagram (click to enlarge) Need help with a TiledLayer performance problem? Having trouble porting your wireless application to the latest cell phone? There is a virtual global village filled with SDN Mobility Program members out there who can help. "We have hundreds of user groups and hundreds of forums," says Dianna Yee-Stauffer, a marketing manager for developer programs at Sun Microsystems. "You can come into this space and the community will support you." For developers who require a bit more than community support, the SDN Mobility Program also offers an extensive selection of Java technology training options. "We offer training anytime, anywhere you want it," says Yee-Stauffer. A quick glance at the training choices reveals an extensive catalog of instructor-led training, web-based training, webcasts, and more. Some of the training is free and some is offered for a minimal charge. "The tools and software, training, interaction, and support from developers helps you to build a mobile application from concept to deployment," Yee-Stauffer says. "If you get your initial training from us, you're almost there." Sun's partners can take you the rest of the way. Partners: the Buddy System Network operators like Vodafone and Sprint and handset manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola offer the finishing touches to any developer training with their own network- or device-specific developer programs. Partnership with a network operator or handset manufacturer can offer developers a clear path to a bountiful subscriber base. The SDN Mobility Program can help them capitalize on their efforts. The program helps you pinpoint which operators and handset manufacturers might be a good fit for your applications. It also presents program members with the choice to develop applications through the SDN Mobility Program or through one of Sun's partners - or to use services offered by both in parallel. To discover what types of applications network operators are looking for, visit their web sites. Says Yee-Stauffer: "If developers come here, they get links to all our partners and then they can pick and choose to determine which they want to use. This applies not only to training and application development services, but to Go-To-Market services as well." Go-To-Market Services: Cashing in on Your Brainpower Once a developer joins the SDN Mobility Program and uses its resources to develop a great new application, Sun's Go-To-Market services come into play. This portion of the program helps developers test, certify, and showcase their applications. Step 1: Testing and Certification Because Java technology is maintained by the Java community, it is a constantly evolving platform. This dynamism is a benefit, because it allows the technology to respond quickly to emerging needs within the marketplace, but the very pace of change itself has created problems for the emerging mobile market, as several different versions of wireless Java technology have materialized. In order to simplify matters, Sun Microsystems and handset manufacturers Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, and Sony-Ericsson have worked together to hammer out the Unified Testing Initiative (UTI), which is designed to create an industry-wide testing standard for mobile devices. From this effort was born the Java Verification Program, which awards certified applications with a sure-to-be-coveted Java Powered logo. "Sun is working to minimize the fragmentation in the Java technology market and streamline the testing process to come up with a scalable model. In doing so, we are also reducing the cost to both developers and operators," says Rajiv Chamraj, product line manager for Sun Microsystems. To participate in the Java Verification Program, developers must register at www.javaverified.com. This site contains everything you need to know about the program, including the required steps for submitting an application for verification. It also contains information about the test houses - companies around the world that offer their certification services to developers. You get to select the one that will test your application. "So just because a developer may be based outside of Europe or the U.S., he's not at a disadvantage," says Chamraj. "The test houses we've selected are accepting a wide variety of languages as well." In addition to making the testing process more efficient for developers, the Unified Testing Initiative and Java Verification Program should also make bringing applications to market less expensive. To certify a simple mobile application, a developer outside the program may pay anywhere from $200 to $800 per platform. Once an application is tested on any one of the platforms offered by Motorola, Nokia, Siemens, and Sony-Ericsson, a developer doesn't have to incur the full cost of testing the same application on additional platforms. Once an application passes testing, the test house notifies Sun, which issues the application a "Java Powered" logo. This logo signifies to the mobile marketplace that this application complies with the Unified Testing Criteria for J2ME. Says Craig Miller, Mobility Solutions Manager for Sun Microsystems: "By getting certified, not only are you guaranteeing your compatibility with a wide range of handsets, but you'll be able to use the 'Java Powered' logo to promote your applications to operators as being certified to the industry standard. And what's important there is that developers are able to leverage Java technology's brand awareness in the industry to promote their own applications." That brand awareness is quite a boon. Miller says that Sun recently hired a research firm to conduct a study into global awareness of the Java technology brand. The results were stunning: Of 17,000 respondents surveyed in February 2003, 85 percent were aware of the Java brand, and more than 50 percent believed the Java programming language is important to their own technology. People recognize the logo and the brand, they think it's cool, and that's certainly useful to the developer," says Miller. Step 2: Showcasing Once an application has earned a "Java Powered" logo through the Java Verification Program, that application will be channeled into the global mobile market through two separate portals: the Sun Content Catalog and java.com. The Sun Content Catalog is a business-to-business catalog of developer content made available to Sun's partners in the mobility industry for possible inclusion in their application portfolios. These partners are network operators like Vodafone or NTT DoCoMo and handset manufacturers like Sony-Ericsson or Siemens. This channel to market helps mobile Java technology developers find the right opportunities for their products, and it helps network operators and handset manufacturers gain a first look at the best new Java technology applications available. "We're helping shorten time to market, and time to money for the mobile content developers," says Miller. The Sun Content Catalog is accessible by global operators and handset manufacturers, enabling content developers to address a much larger audience and market than they could on their own. "The Sun Content Catalog helps developers leverage the Java brand to address the global audience," says Miller. Only recently announced, java.com is Sun's new consumer portal, which provides a showcase for some of the latest and greatest wireless Java technology applications from the Sun Content Catalog. Expect to see riveting games, such as a new wireless version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, and useful applications like MyMobilePix, which enables users to carry a small photo album around in their mobile phone or PDA. These two portals are meant to showcase the power of Java technology and facilitate business relationships between Java technology developers and prospective customers. It's worth noting that Sun is simply promoting Java technology-based content through these sites, the company is not selling it. Instructions for submitting content to the testing program and the Sun Content Catalog are available at Sun's wireless developer site. BUILDING A BETTER APPLICATION: Essential Wireless Java Tools Before you go to market, you need a ticket to ride: a marketable application. Sun provides an abundance of tools to help you construct your content. The J2ME Wireless Toolkit has everything you need to dive right in and start writing code - and its simple, intuitive emulation environment provides a gentle learning curve. Since it was first released in the last quarter of 1999, the J2ME Wireless Toolkit has become one of the most popular development tools for wireless Java technology-enabled devices, says James Allen, J2ME senior marketing manager for Sun Microsystems. According to Sun, as of August 2003 there had been more than 969,000 downloads. The free J2ME Wireless Toolkit includes a debug version of the Java Virtual Machine for mobile phones that allows debugging at the source-code level; an assortment of advanced utilities to help developers pre-verify and performance-tune applications; an emulator that can be customized to represent specific devices; and the ability to integrate extra tools such as code obfuscators, optimizers, and general-purpose integrated development environments (IDEs). The toolkit is offered for Windows and Linux platforms, as well as the Solaris operating system. "The J2ME Wireless Toolkit provides a very fast way to test an application quickly without having to have a device immediately available," says Allen, "but even if there is a device available, the toolkit can save developers an enormous amount of valuable time by eliminating the workload involved in getting the application off the workstation and onto the phone for testing, then back onto the workstation for performance tuning, and so on. This is one of the reasons professional J2ME content development companies use the toolkit as an integral part of their development cycles." The J2ME Wireless Toolkit is an integral part of the Sun ONE Studio, Mobile Edition IDE. Integrated development environments simplify the development process by integrating tools that otherwise would have to be used separately to write, compile, and test code. IDEs enable rapid application development by allowing you to use tools simultaneously, to pre-verify, execute, debug, and test applications against multiple third-party device emulators in parallel. "Otherwise you have to use one tool for this, one tool for that, and move around a lot," says Allen. "This does it all in an integrated way." IDEs are particularly helpful with error-prone steps such as editing Java Application Descriptor (.JAD) files, and creating Java ARchive (.JAR) files. The goodies don't stop there. In addition to support for MIDP 2.0, the J2ME Wireless Toolkit 2.0 also supports Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JSR 185) and two standard extension API packages, Wireless Messaging API (JSR 120) and Mobile Media API (JSR 135). The fact that this toolkit already supports version 2.0 of MIDP, before mobile devices that support MIDP 2.0 are generally available, gives Java technology developers a jump-start on producing next-generation products for next-generation devices. Furthermore, mobile service operators, handset manufacturers, device middleware providers, and tool vendors can license the toolkit from Sun to produce customized tools specific to their needs, or enhance their own products. "No other tool is so versatile that it can be operated standalone, or integrated with a full-featured Java development environment," says Allen. "Developers want flexibility with tools, and with the J2ME Wireless Toolkit, we provide exactly that." DRIVING SUCCESS WITH WIRELESS JAVA TECHNOLOGY At the end of the day, the new wireless world will be a content-driven industry, and operators, handset manufacturers, and solution providers will depend on developers for exciting content to fuel their success. What this means, says Sun's Miller, is that developers of wireless Java technology content have the resources, momentum, and opportunities to propel the mobile industry to the next level. "Java wireless developers are in the driver's seat," he says. "And they're ready to roll."
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