Voice over IP sparks war of the embedded OS

Rethink IT, May, 2004

At the recent CTIA telecoms event, Sun grabbed the limelight with its roadmap for the voice over IP (VoIP) devices of the future and particularly its plans for Java Card. It will be up against Microsoft though. Despite their recent rapprochement, the two companies will be head to head in the burgeoning market for devices that take advantage of VoIP for the enterprise, and Microsoft has reworked its Windows CE, the cut-down version of the OS, for the purpose.

Sun's CEO Scott McNealy focused at CTIA on Java Card, the smallest implementation of the Java software technology, as the mechanism for unwiring the desktop environment and mobilizing the end user.

McNealy's keynote gave the strong--and reassuring--impression that the company is finally prepared to get serious about reaping full commercial advantage from its Java technology in the mobile arena. McNealy boasted that 1.5bn mobile and embedded devices now run Java and 500m Java Cards have shipped, but it is a fact that this success has not always been down to Sun's efforts, nor has the company yet seen any impressive financial return from its technology--most of this has gone to the innovative applications houses, whose products and content in the cellphone world are now worth about $2.5bn. There are now 300 handset models running mobile Java, a number that McNealy predicts will cross the one billion mark by 2007.

ENTER THE JAVA CARD

The focus of the expansion of Java is the Java Card, the slimmest virtual machine, which allows devices with small memories, such as smartcards and basic phones, to run applets securely. For the enterprise, McNealy painted a picture of a portable dumb terminal, powered by a Java Card, which would replicate the experience of the desktop and, eventually, would incorporate VoIP to replace the desk phone. Any desktop could be downloaded on to the terminal and used by any authorized employee.

It was all highly redolent of the thin client message McNealy and his ally, Oracle's Larry Ellison, first unleashed against the Microsoft PC almost a decade ago--a virtually dumb device that would download all its settings and access all its applications and data over the internet. That vision has only succeeded in chipping away at the dominance of the PC model, but not for the want of support from the server-oriented vendors. It faltered, however, on the shortage of usable devices, the inconvenience of connection mechanisms such as dialup and synchronization, and the immaturity of web services.

A VIABLE THIN CLIENT

All that is changing with the emergence of the smartphone as a viable enterprise thin client, fully mobile, always-on and sporting large screens and full function browsers. Another 12 months should see mobile web services becoming robust, and then McNealy could finally see his dream materializing. Whether Sun gains from that development will, of course, depend on the continuing progress of Java and of its mobile implementations, J2ME and Java Card, against the powerful Microsoft .Net forces ranged against it in the enterprise sector.

The closest Microsoft comes to thin clients, its PDA and smartphone platforms--still 'fat' compared to most Java-based models--are maturing rapidly, bringing the familiar PC interface and programming environments to the corporate space. The company's retention of its current pole position depends on these devices becoming the preferred end user terminals to link to a .Net web services framework. We can expect far more aggressive response to the Sun model from Microsoft in the coming year as it finally assembles some relatively credible weapons for the mobile enterprise

One sign of this was its recent CE moves. Microsoft may be making limited headway in mobile phones, but it is seeking a new route into handsets and the all-important enterprise client device--by piggybacking on the expected boom in mobile VoIP. The company has previewed a new version of its Windows CE operating system which it is pushing heavily at makers of VoIP phones, as well as set-top boxes and other consumer products.

Windows CE, which is the basis of Windows Mobile and consists of a cutdown version of the PC OS for embedded devices, will now come with a wide range of pre-built drivers for common components, to reduce time to market for makers of VoIP phones and other products. NEC Infrontia and LG Electronics were the first to sign up to make such handsets, and both will also work on dual-mode Windows Mobile phones, supporting both cellular and Wi-Fi as new Symbian OS launches from Motorola and Nokia do.

Other vendors planning VoIP devices based on the new OS are Atrium C&I, Bast, lntermec, Inter-Tel, Mikasa Shoji, Netsys, Redline, RV Technology, Uptech, Wooksung and ZTE.

Microsoft is understandably keen--given its strength in PCs and weakness in cellphones on the idea that VoIP does not have to be incorporated in a conventional phone. Any device connected to the internet can bc phone-enabled, the company argues, and is looking to embed its VoIP optimized CE version into residential gateways and set-top boxes. It is also working with Vonage, the US VoIP provider, on a 'softphone' that can be added to any CE device such as a PDA.