JavaOne 2009 Revisited

Sony Ericsson co-sponsored and played a significant part in last month�s JavaOne conference, including a keynote address and five technical speaker sessions. If you weren�t able to make it to JavaOne, here�s a summary of Sony Ericsson�s activities. If you did, here�s a reminder of a great show�

Keynote Session: Being unique with Sony Ericsson

Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement at Sony Ericsson led the keynote together with Rikko Sakaguchi, Corporate Vice President and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson, and Patrik Olsson, Head of Software at Sony Ericsson.
Rikko Sakaguchi and Christopher David on stage

Live Development � from zero to alpha status in under an hour with JavaFX

Christopher David invited Erik Hellman to the stage to perform a live application development using JavaFX during the keynote session. Erik, a developer at Sony Ericsson, explained that he would build an application called TweetMe. This combines Twitter with location information, so that tweets originating nearby the Moscone Center could be selected and displayed.

In less than fifteen minutes, Erik had written the first part of the application and was testing it on a phone. Thirty minutes after that, the application was ready to demonstrate using the same .jar file installed on three Sony Ericsson phones:

Aino � an OSE phone with Sony Ericsson Java Platform JP-8.5
Experia X1 � Windows Mobile 6.1
Satio � Symbian Foundation, based on S60 5th edition Symbian OS.

The application ran unmodified on each and used the touch-screen on X1 and Satio. Location co-ordinates were fed in to Google Maps and Twitter to display location and select tweets.
Afterwards, Erik posted the application at labs.sonyericsson.com. Sony Ericsson Labs is a place where application ideas and prototypes can be posted so that anyone interested can take part in the development process.

Developing an application live on stage including Twitter interaction with the audience and followers outside captured the imagination of many delegates, and was a popular topic of conversation at the booth.

Java is integrated in Sony Ericsson�s thinking

Patrik Olsson presented a history of Sony Ericsson�s Java-enabled phones, showing how the decision to use Java for internal development enabled Java to be an integrated part of Sony Ericsson�s thinking, and not just an add-on. This has enabled Sony Ericsson to provide a multi-tasking VM in 2006, the world�s first fully MSA compliant phone in 2008 and Project Capuchin technology to bridge Java and Adobe Flash.

Patrik announced that a new array of APIs will be introduced later in 2009 including:

Camera motion sensor
Step counter
Enhanced user interaction with applications via the idle screen.

European mobile operator Orange explained how they had worked together with Sony Ericsson to create a Java midlet for the idle screen, so that Sony Ericsson phones can be quickly brought to market with Orange�s customized service offering included.

The Communication Entertainment Brand
Rikko Sakaguchi explained how User Experience is at the centre of Sony Ericsson�s thinking. Sony Ericsson is uniting experiences such as music, images, gaming and messaging. Next, Sony Ericsson is broadening the horizon of entertainment, connecting the experience of home and mobile. We have gone beyond one-to-one communication and in to people-to-people communication and web-based services. Sony Ericsson is in a unique position to unite the DNA of entertainment and the DNA of communication.

Karl-Johan Dahlstr�m demonstrated a united experience of the PlayStation� 3 with the mobile phone. The PlayStation 3 UI is displayed on the phone and entertainment from the PlayStation can be consumed on the phone, including PlayTV�. WiFi or 3G services can be used to make the connection.

PlayNow arena Applications & submit.sonyericsson.com
In an exclusive announcement at JavaOne, Rikko Sakaguchi introduced PlayNow arena Applications and Christopher David previewed the forthcoming website submit.sonyericsson.com for submitting content to Sony Ericsson.

Rikko Sakaguchi traced the growth of the PlayNow service family from 2004 to the establishment of PlayNow arena in 2008 and recent additions such as movies. Together with Fun & Downloads, over 200 million phones have built-in access and more than 200 million downloads were made in the last year. Sony Ericsson is making it as easy as possible to get content and services to the customer�s attention � one click away. Idle screen functionality was demonstrated where the top 25 games from PlayNow are scrolled across the screen. Price and confirmation to buy are a single click away.

Christopher David explained how Sony Ericsson will bring applications and games from developers to customers, providing a simple channel from developer to customer eyeball. Submit.sonyericsson.com is a new website where developers submit content. Key features are:

any legal entity can submit content
no fee to submit
no annual fees
OK to submit unsigned application
Submission to customer eyeball in 30 days
70/30 net revenue share.
Sony Ericsson will select applications with more focus on quality than quantity. Selected applications must be JavaVerified before distribution.

The submit site opened to selected entrepreneurial developers on July 1st. All Developer World members are now able to submit content.

Announcements: Sony Ericsson brings mobile Java� Platform to 3G entry phones
At the 2009 JavaOne Conference Sony Ericsson announced plans to extend its mobile Java Platform into its entry 3G phone portfolio. Games, applications and content developed on the Sony Ericsson Java Platform will provide a compelling business opportunity for developers who can now extend content creation for end-users in the growing entry 3G segment. This move increases the addressable market from 200 million at June 2009 up to 800 million phones over the next few years.

Announcements: JATAF
JATAF stands for Java� Application Terminal Alignment Framework, which is a new collaboration that was announced on June 2, 2009. Founding members include Sun Microsystems, Orange, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson. JATAF is dedicated to addressing fragmentation of Java ME implementations, so that Java ME remains the premier target for cross-platform applications. JATAF will be an open source community where developers can contribute to test cases which address fragmentation issues.

Sony Ericsson participated in the press announcement of JATAF and also in a panel discussion and question & answer session.

Technical Sessions
Sony Ericsson ran or took part in five technical sessions:

Rich User Interfaces for Java ME Devices
Maximizing Your FPS in Java ME Technology-Based Applications
Augmented Reality with Java ME Devices
A Closer Look at the Java ME SDK 3.0
RESTful Access to Java ME Service APIs
In these sessions and at the booth, we got good feedback and questions about user interfaces and Project Capuchin technology, which bridges between Java ME and Adobe Flash. We talked to many developers who were interested in developing Java applications with Sony Ericsson.