The competition is open to the 7 million-strong Java developer community, with the winner scooping USD 5000 (SEK 30,239).

Jörgen Odgaard, Head of the Ericsson Mobility World Developer Program, says that this joint Ericsson-Sun venture gives developers the chance to explore new possibilities.

“It’s an opportunity for them to explore opportunities with two dominating companies in the industry,” he says.

Odgaard says that Ericsson decided to sponsor the contest because it’s anxious to reach out to Java developers worldwide and show them that they can utilize telecom functionalities.

He also says that it makes good business sense for Ericsson to work with Sun on this project as they both want to stimulate the Java community to create converged applications.

“Our ambition and strategy is to grow an ecosystem where we work together with the industry, and Sun is an important player in the IT industry,” he says.

Odgaard stresses the importance of several members of the industry pulling together to create a successful ecosystem, pointing out that Ericsson cannot do this work alone.

Participants in the contest will use Ericsson’s Service Development Studio (SDS), a comprehensive tool for development and end-to-end testing of both the client and server sides of IMS-based applications. 

Odgaard points to the benefits of using SDS. “It allows the service providers to access an IMS core and emulate how their service would run utilizing IMS capabilities,” he says.

The Sun-Ericsson application competition will span a five-month period with the results being announced in October of this year.

Three finalists will be selected by a panel of judges consisting of experts from Ericsson and Sun. Apart from the winner netting more than SEK 30,000, the two runners-up will each receive a Sony Ericsson phone.

“The real value for participants is being recognized by Ericsson and Sun as having a valuable service to offer,” Odgaard says.