OSGi Alliance Drives Java Innovation through Formation of New Mobile Expert Group
Mobile industry leaders focused on enabling next-generation mobile Java™ solutions worldwide
San Ramon, CA - The OSGi Alliance today announced the formation of the Mobile Expert Group, a new working body designed to further promote the use of Java™ technology in the mobile space.
Comprised of industry leaders including BMW, Gatespace Telematics, IBM, Motorola, Nokia, Oracle, Panasonic, ProSyst, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, Telcordia Technologies and others, the OSGi Mobile Expert Group (MEG) is chartered to define the requirements and specifications to tailor and extend the OSGi Service Platform for mobile devices that are data-capable, and also capable of connecting to wireless networks.
"As the power and capability of wireless devices increases, the opportunity for more advanced applications and software solutions also increases," said John Barr, president of the OSGi Alliance and Director, Standards Realization for Motorola. "To realize their full potential, wireless devices need a new level of open software infrastructure, supporting the ability to share and to re-use programmatic services between applications and to manage application lifecycles completely. The OSGi Mobile Expert Group recognizes this challenge and will work hand-in-hand with other standards bodies to meet it head-on."
Leveraging the OSGi Service Platform, the Mobile Expert Group will work to define specifications that expand the current marketplace for downloadable games to encompass downloadable middleware and extended APIs-enabling end users to accomplish multiple tasks, simultaneously, using the same device. For example, a consumer will be able to answer a phone call while playing a Java game without interrupting or ending the game action.
In addition, the Mobile Expert Group will work toward facilitating the growth of the Java developer community by enabling new innovative services for mobile users around the world, while accommodating existing application runtime environments. By working closely with other standards bodies in Java™ technology and wireless spaces, the Mobile Expert Group hopes to extend existing standards and further the development of new work in application development, provisioning, and management.
Device users will greatly benefit from the Mobile Expert Group addition to the OSGi services-based platform since it will support sharing and re-use of common services by applications, thus allowing more applications to fit onto a device. And since all applications will be developed to a common standard, they will be updatable, replaceable and dynamically provisionable over the lifetime of the device. This will allow users to chose and change even the most fundamental components such as the browser, messaging editor, etc.
The OSGi Alliance Mobile Expert Group held its first meeting December 9-10 in Helsinki Finland.
About the OSGi Alliance
The OSGi Alliance and its members specify, create, advance and promote an open service delivery and management platform and foster its wide industry adoption. The OSGi Alliance serves as the focal point for a collaborative ecosystem of service provider, technology, industrial, consumer and automotive electronics communities. As an independent non-profit corporation, the OSGi Alliance also provides for the fair and uniform creation and distribution of relevant intellectual property-including specifications, reference implementations and test suites-to all its members.
The OSGi Service Platform is an extensible integration platform used to remotely and dynamically deploy, provision, maintain and manage applications and services to devices in networked environments, such as homes, vehicles, mobile handhelds, and industrial settings. Membership is open to any interested party, including Internet service providers, network operators, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, end users, academic institutions, government agencies, and none-profit organizations. For more information visit www.osgi.org.
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For further information contact:
Rob Ranck
Operations director, OSGi Alliance
Tel: +1 925-275-6625