Motorola to build open source Java ME community

Motorola plans to establish an open source community for the Java Micro Edition (Java ME) software stack for the mobile industry. The company plans to use the open source Apache License Version 2.0. of the Apache Software Foundation.

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The Schaumburg, Illinois maker of wireless equipment said Tuesday it was inviting the broader Java ME ecosystem to this initiative to reduce Java fragmentation. Industry fragmentation and proprietary software models are an obstacle to releasing the full power of innovation in the mobile Java ecosystem, the company said. Developers, customers, partners, and the industry at large will benefit from a new open source model, it added.

Sun Microsystems has released several Java technology pieces to the open-source community, but has hesitated on announcing a time-line for making Java open source, citing concern about the need for maintaining compatibility in the Java language.

Sun of Santa Clara, California was not immediately available for comment.

Motorola will work to align its future developments around Java ME with Apache’s model of licensing and open governance in order to help promote a unified mobile Java platform, the company said.