NTT SOFT, a sister company and key technology partner of Japan's NTT DoCoMo, has grasped the wireless nettle: acknowledging that developing wireless-specific applications is a process fraught with formidable technical challenges that can limit scalability and reliability and delay time to market for new apps, the company has created a specialized Java-based developmental tool called BlueGrid.

BlueGrid is an advanced mobile communications middleware tool that supports easy development and scalable execution by enabling the collaboration of J2ME CLDC and J2EE. What will this mean to developers? It will mean lower development costs, reduced time to market, increased scalability, and more reliable applications. Java currently leads the pack as a preferred wireless middleware platform programming language. In a chaotic market in need of global versus regional standards, Java’s growing dominance at least gives wireless markets a foot in the door toward the distant beacon of a seamless global wireless device.

To further enhance the power of its 3G mobile communications platform called FOMA (Freedom of mobile Multimedia Access), i-mode and all other Java-enabled wireless devices, NTT SOFT has made significant enhancements to BlueGrid. The new version of BlueGrid is called “BlueGrid for Web Services” and is far more powerful than the current version and much more advanced than any similar technology on the market. NTT SOFT, along with its key technology partners in Japan and the U.S. are convinced that this new product is equally suited to the U.S. market.

They’re also convinced that this new product will solve many of the problems that are keeping the North American market from adopting the kind of next generation wireless solution that are already available in Japan. With FOMA and i-mode gaining more attention in markets outside Japan, NTT DoCoMo is focusing on the work of developing the applications that will turn its latest smart mobile device into an all-purpose accessory as indispensable and universal as an electronic wallet

Although “BlueGrid for Web Services” has already passed all final beta tests, it will not be available until April 2002. The new product is now being localized for the North American market and will be simultaneously available in Japan and in the U.S. A spokesman for NTT told WSJ that wireless technologies will continue to evolve and compete in the next few years. In the meantime, NTT SOFT is concentrating on building strategic partnerships as the key to long-term survival.

The FOMA/BlueGrid combination presents an attractive alternative to the patchwork technologies competing for regional market share. How the market responds will depend on the willingness of wireless executives to broaden their view beyond their own fixed horizons.

“Wireless technologies will slowly begin to unify in years to come,” said the spokesman, “but for now we're focused on choosing the most advantageous business alliances. Naturally, we would like FOMA and BlueGrid to be as popular in, say, North America and Europe as they are in Japan, and that will depend on finding the right partners to localize and position these products to appeal to a very different kind of market than what we have here.”

WSJ will naturally be covering any developments.