More than 120 million JavaTM technology-enabled mobile handsets have shipped worldwide, according to Sun Microsystems. The company attributes this popularity to the availability of more than 200 different Java technology-enabled handsets through more than 70 carriers all over the globe -- numbers which have grown 35 percent since June.

"We are pleased to be working with Sun to capitalize on the alliance advantages of Java technology, which will enable us to accelerate the development and delivery of wireless content to our subscribers," said Lu Jianguo, vice president of the China Unicom Group. "Sun's experience and leadership in the mobile market will help open new revenue channels and increase subscriber growth through the introduction and delivery of new Java (technology) applications and services."

Sun, China Unicom and ZRRT, a service provider in China, recently agreed to an alliance that will further develop and promote technology-based wireless applications and services under the "UniJa" brand name. Sun hopes this will allow the company to capitalize on one of the world's largest mobile handset markets. The new alliance with China Unicom and ZRRT is designed to create a comprehensive value chain platform for jointly developing Java technology-based services on Unicom's CDMA 1x network. As part of the arrangement Sun will provide the products, programs and technologies that will help ZRRT with the management of the Java technology-based mobile content ecosystem. An estimated 1.5 million CDMA subscribers will be able to immediately benefit from the new "UniJa" services.

"We are really excited to have hit such a significant shipping milestone of 120 million mobile devices with Java technology," said Alan Brenner, vice president, Consumer and Mobile Systems Group of Sun. "In this highly competitive wireless market, this achievement, the introduction of new products and services, and the announcement of new customer deployments, demonstrate Sun's continued commitment to meet and exceed the needs of operators, content developers, device manufacturers and consumers."

As part of another agreement, the Chinese mobile handset manufacturer TCL Mobile Communications has licensed JavaTM 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2METM) technology from Sun. The licensing arrangement will allow mobile phone users in China to gain access to new Java technology-enabled handsets.

"Java has emerged as the common language of the wireless applications world," said Wang Jiyang, deputy CTO of TCL Mobile Communications. "By licensing Java technology from Sun, TCL will be able to provide an open, secure, standards-based platform for millions of Java developers to unleash their creativity through the delivery of new Java (technology) applications to the China market. New Java (technology) handsets from TCL will be available by December 2003."