Francis Charig, chairman and CEO of Reading, UK-based Tao, told ComputerWire that the company is set to introduce an end-to-end infrastructure on the server side allowing content to be created in multiple languages and run on any device running Tao’s Intent multimedia device platform, which itself is set to enter version 2 in the near future.
While details are currently sketchy, and Charig did not want to give too much away prior to its launch (possibly at the 3GSM World Congress event in Cannes, France this month or the giant CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany next month), Intent 2 looks set to feature both an updated multimedia engine and an integrated browser application, an area that Tao believes has been ill-served in the small device space.
Intent 2 will be supported by a comprehensive software development kit that Charig describes as more like the x-thousand dollar SDKs commercial developers are used to than Tao’s traditional offerings. Tao will, however, continue to offer a more stripped-down advanced developer’s kit (ADK) for the mass market, said Charig.
The upshot for users, said Charig, apart from gaining cross-platform application and content capability, is that a standardized content system such as Tao’s will allow content creation to return to the domain of content specialists, rather than the hands of engineers, who have become default content creators because of the need to rebuild content for different platforms.
Adding to the enterprise interest, Charig said he expects Kyoto, Japan-based electronics company Kyocera Corp to launch localized versions of its unique Intent-based PocketCosmo PDA in selected countries over the next few months, although he could not say where or when. The device, which uses a relatively old version of Intent, already offers very impressive multimedia performance as well as a 3D interface and other unusual features.
However, the greatest achievement for Tao would be adoption of Intent as a standard device platform for electronic devices, especially mass-market ones such as mobile phones. While the company has made considerable gains in this area in Japan – through the work of the Open Contents Platform Association (OCPA), an industry association backed by most of the country’s leading consumer electronics companies, which has adopted Intent as its cornerstone – it has yet to make much impression outside of Japan.
Charig said this is set to change. Networks will start specifying Intent on handsets this year, he said, adding that several operators in North America, Europe and Asia are currently assessing Intent. We allow a consistent experience with the same binary running on every platform.
This latter factor, together with Intent’s reliability, is crucial for mobile operators, which need to start generating huge sums of money from data services but are currently faced with having to support multiple different devices that need content delivered to them in slightly different packages. Intent, said Charig, will help reduce churn and increase ARPU.
These qualities also make Intent ideally suited to enterprise usage, offering a true cross-platform, cross-device environment that is closer to the write once, run anywhere concept than other systems currently on the market.
It has taken Tao some time to realize this, however. We never thought we could deliver to the enterprise but we now realize we have an exciting differentiator for enterprises and it’s there now. We’ll be able to contribute massive steps forward in the enterprise space, said Charig. Unlike other cross-platform environments targeted at mobile devices and consumer electronics, most obviously Sun Microsystems’ mobile Java technology (J2ME), Intent applications do not require any rewriting to run on the full range of supported host systems. Application code and even device drivers in Intent are portable.
For maximum compatibility, Tao includes both J2ME and PersonalJava capabilities in Intent. However, unlike other systems, Tao’s Java implementation does not use just-in-time compiling but instead uses the company’s Virtual Processing (VP) technology to interpret Java code into native host processor code, massively accelerating its performance.
The only limitation is that Tao may have to tweak Intent to work on new hardware. However, the effort, which Charig said may take a few months, is worthwhile for the cross-device software capabilities it brings. Intent also supports applications written in C, C++ and its own proprietary VP ASM language and the platform also offers high-performance graphics and audio handling.
Source: Computerwire
