Open standards could see a boost in the mobile arena thanks to Sun’s integration of synchronisation technology from Synchronica into its Sun Java Communications Suite, a collection of messaging server tools aimed at both enterprise customers and carriers.

Synchronica’s technology, as used in the firm’s own Mobile Gateway middleware product, is based on the Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronisation (OMA DS) protocol, also known as SyncML. This is already built into a great many mobile handsets, especially those based on the Symbian platform, enabling firms to give users mobile email without needing to deploy a software client in many cases.

“We believe we have one of the best SyncML servers available, and the move by Sun helps to bolster SyncML as an industry standard,” said Synchronica chief executive Carsten Brinkschulte.

Java Communications Suite is a competitor to Microsoft’s Exchange, supporting email, instant messaging and calendar functions. Although not as visible as its rival, it has an installed based of 240 million mailboxes worldwide, according to Sun, and is used by firms such as General Electric and the European Investment Bank, as well as operated by carriers as a hosted service.

Sun vice-president of software infrastructure, Karen Tegan Padir, said the move will extend the firm’s reach beyond the already wide range of supported desktop clients to a large number of mobile devices.

As well as its server technology, Sun has licensed Synchronica’s SyncML clients for Windows Mobile and Palm OS, plus its over-the-air client provisioning based on OMA CP, which enables SyncML clients to be configured remotely rather than manually.
Brinkschulte said Sun’s move was an endorsement of Synchronica’s standards-based technology, and hoped it would lead to greater market share through upselling Sun customers to the wider capabilities of Mobile Gateway.

Jessica Figueras of analyst firm Ovum said the move was certainly a breakthrough for Synchronica, which has only had modest commercial success to date.

The firm faces competition from Microsoft’s Exchange, which now includes wireless messaging capabilities. Brinkschulte conceded that Exchange was a very attractive solution for businesses, but said it was largely limited to serving only handsets based on Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile software.

“The vast majority of devices are not Windows Mobile,” he said, adding that Mobile Gateway can also link with Exchange at the back end. “We do a lot of business where customers want to use devices such as Apple’s iPhone with Exchange. SyncML is here to stay.”

Figueras, however, said Exchange is too well established to be challenged in the enterprise space “I believe the Sun/Synchronica solution will play better in the service provider market for carrier-hosted mobile email services,” she said.

Sun has also licensed Synchronica technology for its Java System Application Platform Suite, where it will enable developers to build synchronisation solutions to link enterprise applications such as SAP with mobile handhelds.