palmOne today announced the latest release of a developer toolkit that brings Java 2 Micro Edition support to Treo 600 smartphones, which significantly expands the capabilities of its product lines for business customers and developers.

A beta of the new version of IBM's WebSphere Micro Environment Toolkit for Palm OS Developers, which includes a new high-performance runtime with support for the latest Java Community Process standards, was released to developers today through the palmOne PluggedIn developer website.

The toolkit enables developers to target, deploy, and execute their Java MIDlet applications on palmOne devices, directly alongside native Palm OS applications. The early-access release allows software developers to design and test applications that utilize the new standards support and other capabilities in advance of the end-user runtime release next spring. With support for both the Treo 600 smartphone and the Tungsten line of handhelds, compelling, standards-based applications and solutions can now be deployed in a consistent way to mobile workforces and consumers alike.

With the availability of Java technology, developers can use existing tools, skill sets, and in some cases code, to create new mobile solutions for palmOne products, as well as seamlessly deploy existing MIDP applications originally targeted at other devices with MIDP support. Specifically, the new release enables support for the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) 1.1/ Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 2.0 Java Specifications. This provides a Java Powered runtime together with the Treo 600 smartphone's five-way navigation, along with CDMA/1XRTT and GSM/GPRS network stack support. The performance of the new runtime is also significantly improved through native ARM optimization, beating many of the highest published scores on industry-standard benchmarks such as JBenchmark and MIDPMark.

"With IBM's native ARM Java runtime on the Tungsten handheld and Treo 600 smartphone, we're easily able to develop applications while not sacrificing speed, functionality or usability," said Jerome Liss, vice president for development, Digital Dispatcher. "Our flexibility in serving our customers is also greatly increased -- we can now take full advantage of standards-based development and deliver applications to our customers on the kind of mobile device they want -- whether it's a Tungsten C handheld with integrated Wi-Fi or a Treo 600 smartphone -- without needing to significantly rewrite code or invest in a new set of tools and training."

Today's announcement reinforces palmOne's commitment to the mobile software development community. By quickly extending the benefits of the Java developer community and IBM relationship to the award-winning Treo smartphone product line, palmOne developers are better equipped to deliver compelling aftermarket enterprise solutions. The Treo and Tungsten line of products offer a more diverse set of capabilities and configurations than what the mobile Java development community has had available from the more traditional handset and smartphone market. Customers' demand for richer input mechanisms, brighter and higher-resolution screens, and more storage memory can now be met.

"Delivering Java to the Treo 600 smartphone is just the beginning of the tremendous benefits the recent merger is bringing to our customers and the mobile market in general," Joe Sipher, vice president of product and carrier marketing for palmOne. "We're thrilled to be providing three million plus Java developers the tools and support necessary to build truly great mobile business solutions."

"IBM is committed to extending enterprise computing to a range of devices. Our latest effort with palmOne underscores the importance of embedded Java technology in enabling devices to better access business applications," said Craig Hayman, worldwide vice president, Development, IBM Pervasive Computing Division. "As enterprises look at ways to untether their workforces, the rich pool of Java developers can use existing skills and resources to bring their applications to the rapidly growing mobile market in a consistent manner, with more speed and efficiency."

WebSphere Micro Environment Toolkit for Palm OS Developers is a standalone developer toolkit for use with any J2ME-compatible development environment, such as Borland JBuilder, SunONE Studio and Simplicity for Mobile Devices.

In addition, IBM's award-winning WebSphere Studio Device Developer (WSDD) is now optimized for creating palmOne product-based Java applications. The Eclipse-based WSDD can integrate with the other WebSphere Studio tools to provide an end-to-end Java development solution.

Pricing and Availability

Developers can download the no-cost toolkit, both the beta of the MIDP 2.0 toolkit as well as the existing MIDP 1.0 toolkit, from http://www.palmone.com/java . The MIDP 2.0 runtime is scheduled to be available for both the Treo 600 smartphones and the Tungsten handheld devices next spring. The runtime license for Treo 600 smartphone users is expected to be available from the Software Connection for $5.99.

More information on palmOne's Java strategy and activities for developers is available at http://www.palmone.com/java.

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