A Review of the 5th Annual Wireless Java Conference

This year's annual Wireless Java Conference, presented by Marcus Evans, demonstrated to many that Java MIDP was coming of age. Much of the focus for delegates was of course MIDP 2.0 and the possibilities that will bring for developers, but the main concern was with providing a standards-based approach to ensure future direction would be driven by a community that combines the sharing of experience with best practice. Whilst many have seen Java as only a gaming platform until now, many thought that if Java were to succeed in the long term, it was time for developers to be aware that Java was not just about games.

Carl Taylor, Head of Content at '3', suggested current awareness of 'Java' as a type of service to the consumer was increasing. Main stream media was beginning to wake up to the fact that Java was becoming available on new devices. He said, however, it could be so much more. Network operators chose Java because it of its security architecture. Developers like it because they can develop their applications to suit a range of devices, as long as they are aware of the 80:20 porting rule and that users saw mobile phones turning more and more in to entertainment devices. However Carl Taylor warned that Java was in competition with other content for the attention of the user browsing content portals.

These thoughts on future direction were echoed by Jonathan Allin, Strategic Products Manager for Symbian, who put forward that possible opportunities exist in the future for advanced consumer services. He estimated that Java will generate revenues of around $40bn. He also said that mobile games market will be worth $4bn in 2005, compared to a predicted $25bn revenue stream for the whole of the games market. Location based services such as route planning and localised advertising would make consumers’ everyday lives easier by providing them with the opportunity to carry out tasks while on the move. Other suggestions included wireless commerce, such as cinema ticket purchase or supermarket shopping. Some of these applications should take advantage of the RMS and rather than being reliant upon a network, make use of the network and store data for later use.

Network aware MIDlets give a longer shelf life to applications. Simon Dean, Head of UK Games Business at O2, demonstrated how the early success of their portal, 'O2 Active' has been facilitated by such applications as Racing Fever 2, by Sumea. Users have been able to submit lap times to a high score table and also challenge other users to a race though 'ghost racing'. The game simulates the other users’ time by tracking them around the track with a ghost image. This stimulates user activity on the portal and encourages them to challenge other users and claim a higher spot on the score table. Bluetooth provided another avenue of stimulation for end users. Users can play each other over Bluetooth, which of course circumvents air-time usage, but it does have the viral effect of encouraging players to buy a game on a friend’s recommendation.

O2 also briefly outlined its application incubation service, 'Revolution O2', where developers, for a fee, can submit their applications for testing and suitability on the O2 network, more details can be found at http://www.sourceo2.com/Revolution/default.htm. Details of revenue share and pricing can be found along with a number of developer guidelines for application development.

Many operators at the conference commented that how over the past year, they have seen what many described as an upwards 'hockey stick' type turn in their revenue streams. Much of this was linked with a greater use of branded content, mobile versions of well know titles such as 'FIFA Football 2004 MIE', and 'John Clancy's Splinter Cell' have given consumers confidence when browsing operator portals. Whilst consumers appear to be more aware of obtaining downloadable content many different business models are emerging. MIDP 2.0 and SMS APIs are enabling new streams of revenue for the operators. They are looking for content that will drive community type activities, such as the networking gaming described above. However the technology and organisation of open standards, though the Open Mobile Alliance also provides other routes worth investigating.

Digital rights management (DRM) gives developers more control over revenue streams. It also provides for different billing models, such as "try before buy." Applications can also be passed around virally or on a friend's recommendation. The DRM tracks the passing of the application from one device to another and ensures, consumers pay for a license to use the software. DRM version 1 provides for three types of rights management: 'forward lock', which prevents content from leaving the device; 'combined delivery', which defines the rights for the user holding the certificate, for example, to a limited number of plays and also prevents peer to peer distribution; 'separate delivery', which promotes viral distribution by forcing each new recipient of the application to purchase a certificate of use. Version 2 of OMA's (http://www.openmobilealliance.org) DRM will add public key encryption of application rights and content to bind to a particular device; integrity protection; trust, which binds the rights issuer and the device together; support for a variety of distribution and payment scenarios.

The issue of standards was very high on the list of delegates concerns. From the operators perspective they found an ever increasing amount of time was being spent on testing applications across a range of devices, while developers were constantly having to port content across those same devices. This can become expensive for all parties concerned. Problems are mainly raised due to inconsistencies in firmware versioning or actually getting hold of the real devices and the variance in environments across those devices. The Unified Testing Initiative (UTI), instigated by Sun, seeks to remove some of these barriers to market. The idea is to get developers working more closely with device manufacturers. The conference also welcomed the future introduction of the Java Technology for the Wireless Industry, (JTWI, JSR 185) as it provides a lowest common denominator and a road map of devices for developers to base their applications on.

Seppo Aaltonen, Head of Service Market Development, Nokia suggested that fragmentation, whilst undesirable, was almost inevitable in some ways. Whilst a standard can be maintained, the next tier of innovation leads to more fragmentation, which then becomes the standard once again as the rest of the market catches up.

Java developers will remember the Sun's vision of the Java operating system. SavaJe (http://www.savaje.com), a company spun out of Lucent, have created just that, an OS, but in this case for the mobile device platform. Plugging straight in to the OS kernel, it removes the need for any duplication of services across conventional native APIs and the Java APIs. The SavaJe OS, offers a complete port of the standard Java environment, J2SE on to the mobile device. It also sets out to give the network operators the ability to specify their own devices. Over the air updates of the UI and other services will also be possible. SavaJe expect to launch their first device in the first quarter of 2005, with a pricing range of between 150-200 Euros. Java developers will be particularly excited by this announcement of this OS, based upon open standards, as it will offer a fuller development platform, with all the UI capabilities of J2SE.

In a similar way, BREW announced to the conference that they were no threat to the Java development community and merely represented another route to market. BREW provides unbranded device platforms for operators to define their own devices. Operators and users alike have the knowledge that each downloaded application has to undergo strict quality assurance and security testing, before being released. However, this does come at a cost to the developer: $1,000 for an application on a first device, then $250 for each subsequent device thereafter. However, Brew devices only implement, the esmertec (http://www.esmertec.com/) virtual machine and this does provide some such set of standards across devices therefore reduces fragmentation.

For Java MIDP to strengthen its position within the mobile market, it needs to embrace the network more and be aware of the value added services that can be created by linking with remote data sources through web services and using the network to create another dimension for applications to operate over.