Simon’s Blog

I remember the day when SavaJe first made available a release of its brand new OS - it must have been around five years ago (maybe a bit longer). On that day, we were in the middle of developing a Java application that ran on PDAs, like the Compaq iPAQ. PDAs were an obviously doomed form factor in the long-term, even back then - but they did fill a short-term need. And they were actually quite useful - hell, even Jack Bauer used to use a PDA before CTU saw the light and switched to using mobile phones

But, I digress. We had a few of these little devices in the office, and people were keen to see how far they could be pushed. We had a lot of experience developing Java systems (both client and server) for multiple OSes - Linux, Mac OS, Solaris and Windows (contrary to popular opinion, write once, run anywhere really can work well!). Naturally, then, everyone was intrigued to discover that it was possible (with some risk of turning the device to toast) to wipe the Microsoft OS that shipped on the PDA; and get not only Linux running, but also a totally new OS, based round Java, from a start-up called SavaJe.

As it turned out, all those years ago, neither Linux nor the new SavaJe OS were even close to being ready for production use on handheld devices; but the promise was clearly there. Fast forward to the present day and things have moved on. Linux is now becoming a popular OS on mobile phones. And, at last year’s Java One conference, much was made of the first ever phone based around the SavaJE Java OS. As I understand it, the OS still wasn’t quite ready for prime time. However, the potential was still there, just as it ever was… and considerably closer to being realized that it had been five years earlier.

Now, the SavaJe Java OS and associated software intellectual property is to be acquired by Sun Microsystems (see the press release). It’s probably the right home for this technology: Sun is, after all the company that created Java; and they know a lot about building operating systems.

So - now that the SavaJe OS has a new home, the question is - what will Sun do with it? What would you do with it, if Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz made it your responsibility at Sun? Sun is remaining tight-lipped about its plans for the moment. However, there’s no doubt this technology has the potential revolutionize Java on the mobile phone. In fact, it could even revolutionize the mobile phone itself - it has the potential to be more impressive even than MacOS X running on iPhone. Think stunningly beautiful, graphically rich, responsive, multi-threaded applications; integrated into the OS and the Internet; that can be easily developed and deployed by anyone that knows Java and Swing, by using state-of-the-art IDEs such as Netbeans. In short, this is a technology that could accelerate progress towards the time when mobile phones to become truly powerful, pocketable, networked computers. As always, the devil is in the detail - these things are always much more about how well you can execute than they are about the potential of the idea. But make no mistake - this is a billion dollar opportunity in the medium term, if Sun can find the right path through the minefield that is the mobile world.

I’m betting that Jonathan Schwartz will mention the acquisition of the SavaJe assets in his Java One keynote this year - it’s certainly worth making a song and dance about. I hope and expect that Open Sourcing will be part of the plan for the SavaJe software. And, just as aside, this acquisition didn’t cost $3,1B in cash. In fact, it cost almost nothing. It’s what’s known as “recycling of business assets”…