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Jun. 4, 2009

Verizon’ recent invitation to wireless Java developers to attend a conference on July 28, which is aimed at fostering new mobile application development on Verizon’s network, isn't indicative of the company’s preference or future plans, a source at Verizon said.

Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffery Nelson, referring to Qualcomm’s BREW platform was quick to point out “it's actually Java and Brew, not one or the other.”

The two run on virtually all of Verizon’s feature phones, said Nelson.

Dating back to 2002, Verizon has been backing BREW. Nelson said that Java on Verizon starts with the BlackBerry smartphone, which already runs Java.

“We'll begin by leveraging that capability and move from there,” Nelson added. As for Verizon’s feature phones, they’ll stick with BREW. “We'll maintain BREW on feature phones as long as the BREW ecosystem is robust and meets our needs,” Nelson said.

Verizon’s new initiative for mobile application development is in line with the carrier’s highly publicized Open Development Program (ODP) spearheaded by Tony Lewis, Verizon’s vice president of open development.

The move is aimed at making it easier for wireless developers to have devices certified to run on Verizon’s network. Combined, the two initiatives appear to be sincere moves by the carrier to allow open access to its network.

To be fair, Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, could not have made the same kind of public appeal to the BREW development community this year. In fact, Qualcomm’s own annual developer conference was cancelled earlier this year.

Speaking from the JavaOne 2009 conference in San Francisco, McAdam was up front about Verizon’s history of guarding its network. "We've been relatively closed as a wireless carrier. I think it was because we wanted to be overly protective of our brand.”

McAdam added that his company's policy has changed since network speeds and capacities have increased, making Verizon more able to deal with media-rich devices and applications in a manner that doesn’t affect the quality of the network.

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Source: Verizon Wireless.