Sun Microsystems and Matsushita Electric Industrial are to work together on developing Java for use in home networking consumer devices. The two firms have signed a memorandum of understanding to use the language in ‘network-aware digital consumer electronics.’ Initially, Matsushita will license PersonalJava and the two firms will work together on a Java application programming interface (API) and its adaptation to a Java digital television (DTV) platform. In addition, the two firms also promise a new breed of consumer devices which will use a less- memory hungry version of Java. Sun and Matsushita intend to use the smaller Java in consumer appliances from smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to home stereos and air conditioning units. Although a company spokesperson said that that the two firms’ collaboration on consumer Java applications pre-dated the Sun, Netscape Communications and America Online Inc agreement (CI No 3,545), he did not rule the use of America Online Inc content and Netscape Communications Corp software on Sun and Matsushita-developed Java consumer devices but said that nothing had been formally agreed.
