Sun Microsystems today kicked off its 2009 JavaOne conference with an announcement from Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam that the carrier will be opening up elements of its network to application developers.
McAdam admitted that the company traditionally has been fairly protective of its network. "We've been relatively closed as a wireless carrier. I think it was because we were overly protective of our brand," he said, citing increased bandwidth as one reason for the change in policy.
McAdam said the reason he was making an appearance at the show was to invite Java developers to attend a conference that Verizon will be holding in Silicon Valley on July 28 as a way of generating development of applications for the network.
“What we've decided to do is open up our network elements,” McAdam said, citing the network’s awareness of presence and location as features that lend themselves to application development.
July 28th, "we'll be publishing the specifications and let you know how we can make it easier to bring apps to Verizon," McAdam said.
Sun also announced a new Java Store that will enable companies and developers to distribute content, as well as offer key updates to its JavaFX and GlassFish Portfolio software.
Sun also will preview the upcoming versions of Java Platform Standard Edition 7 (Java SE 7) and Java Platform Enterprise Edition 6 (Java EE 6).
Additional keynote presenters included James Barrese, vice president of architecture, platforms and systems at eBay; Alan Brenner, senior vice president of BlackBerry platforms at Research In Motion (RIM); Don Ekland, executive vice president of advanced technologies at Sony; and Diane Bryant, CIO of Intel.