Sony Ericsson Unites Java, Flash in Phones

Sony Ericsson has announced new technology that will enable mobile receivers to combine Java ME and Adobe;s Flash Lite into a single mobile application.

Sony Ericsson is hoping to jump-start a new generation of mobile phone applications with a new mobile phone development environment called Project Capuchin, which enables Java ME applications to use Adobe Flash Lite for animation or as a front-end to the application itself.

Most mobile phones that support Flash do so with a “playback only” methodology: thy can display and run the Flash content, but the Flash project cannot pass information back and forth to a mobile application, or access properties of the phone, like local storage, mobile services, information available on the phone, and more. Under Project Capuchin, Flash content is embedded in a Java JAR file, and Java applications can feed information to Flash content and receive information back from it, making Flash a viable tool for creating unified front-ends to Java-based mobile applications.

Using Project Capuchin, developers could use Flash technologies to create (say) a game or a slick interface to an social networking service, while using Java’s capabilities to tap into Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even e-commerce functions that would normally be inaccessible to Flash applications.

Sony Ericsson plans to demonstrate Project Capuchin at next month’s JavaOne expo in San Francisco, and begin supporting the platform on its own phones in the second half of 2008. Eventually, Sony Ericsson plans to roll out support across its entire handset line, and would like to see the technology embraced by a wider community—the company said it is exploring open source options, but hasn’t decided how they will publish the API.