Openwave Systems and Sun Microsystems have agreed to accelerate next-generation application development for mobile phones. The agreement will help operators and developers to rapidly create, customize, and deploy powerful new applications and interfaces for mass market mobile phones, the companies says, by integrating Sun’s Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) technologies with Openwave Mobile Integrated Dynamic Application System (MIDAS), a next-generation XML-based scripted application environment.

A complete software development toolkit (SDK) that integrates with the NetBeans IDE, part of the Solaris Enterprise System, will be provided to developers to enable integrated development, device emulation, debugging and packaging of mobile applications, support industry partners and encourage development of ecosystems that leverage both Sun’s Java ME technologies and W3C’s XML-based Compound Document Framework (CDF).

“With Java technologies and Openwave solutions each running on over one billion devices, this collaboration has deep resonance with the mobile community,” said Rich Wong, Senior Vice President, Product and Solutions Group, Openwave. “The ability to create content and services that personalize the user experience on mobile devices is critically important; operators that offer easily accessible content experiences will likely see a lot less customer churn.”

The integration of MIDAS and Java ME technology will result in tools that help developers to take advantage of the capabilities and flexibility provided by these two standards-based technologies in creating various application components and seamlessly integrating them into a single application package.

Custom applications and user interfaces allow mobile subscribers to personalize their mobile phones beyond ring tones and traditional applications, enabling them to select from a variety of styles, themes and graphics to create a rich and compelling user experience, such as an integrated music library, music store, and music player applications.