2004 has been an exciting year for Sony Ericsson and the Sony Ericsson Developer World program. For example, the number of registered members of Sony Ericsson Developer World has increased from 21,000 at the end of 2003 to more than 140,000 by the end of 2004, the majority of them being very active. And we've achieved the objective of ensuring an extraordinarily positive Java development environment. Mikael Nerde, Head of Sony Ericsson's Developer Program has no problems sounding optimistic in his recap of the past year.

2004 is coming to an end and I would like to personally thank all the developers in our community for your hard work, creativity and perseverance, as well as for your contribution of applications and content for Sony Ericsson phones. It has been an amazing year in many ways. The Sony Ericsson Developer World program has done many things to strengthen its support for the developer community, including writing a total of 36 White Papers, Developers' Guidelines and Special Interest Papers not to mention a large number of tips, tricks and code samples specifically for developers. We've also introduced an on-device Application Shop client for over-the-air downloads of applications by consumers directly from their phones which has led to an increased number of downloads and sales for third-party developers.

The number of registered members of Sony Ericsson Developer World has increased from 21,000 at the end of 2003 to more than 140,000 by the end of 2004. The Developer World portal is now using cache technology to optimize performance and the discussion forums have been improved with new posting functionality, formatting, etc. And the number of Developer World newsletter subscribers has increased from a modest 7,000 in October 2003 to nearly 60,000 in November 2004.

One of our primary objectives for 2004 was to enable optimized Java performance on our mobile phones and to ensure a really good Java development environment. Today I can confidently say that Sony Ericsson has a top-performance Java platform and the baseline MIDP 2.0 implementation is identical throughout our portfolio. In the latest MorphMark top 10 Java performer list* (see footnote and links by the end of this article), Sony Ericsson had three phones: the F500i for Vodafone was ranked "the new leader of the pack", the P900 came on third place and the K700i on sixth place.

Looking at our product portfolio, we have launched a variety of Java-capable phones this year, all MIDP 2.0 compliant and six of them are 3D capable. Not only were we he first in the market with a complete mobile 3D offering for developers and consumers, but Java 3D (Mascot Capsule Micro3D version 3 and JSR-184 API's) is a core component of our product strategy and our Java platform. I'm convinced that Java 3D will be a key change for the mobile games industry, a key driver of mobile games and entertainment in the next few years and that it will change the way end-users view games on mobile phones. But, being first-to-market also entails responsibility. To really be able to support developers joining the Java 3D initiative, we've worked very hard to create a seamless and stable development environment with the Sony Ericsson Java SDK supporting both integrated emulation and on-device debugging of Java 3D code. Sony Ericsson Developer World has also worked closely with a number of the best Java game developers in the industry to bring high-quality Java 3D games to market at an early stage. And it's really exciting to see what can be achieved in terms of game-playing experience and visual quality.

While on the topic of games, I have to mention the successful Sony Ericsson Game Developers Challenge 2004 that took place during the spring and summer. We received over 130 entries, 45 games made the cut to consumer voting and some 25 are now commercially available in the Sony Ericsson Application Shop. The three winners have received well-deserved publicity, marketing exposure and support to bring their games to market. You can find the winning games on Fun & Downloads.

During this past fall, Sony Ericsson has extended its range of smartphones for Symbian OS with the P910i. Symbian OS with UIQ is a vital platform for Sony Ericsson to go forward and we also re-affirmed our commitment by investing £57.4 million in Symbian this year. By doing this, Sony Ericsson strengthened its position and ability place requirements on the Symbian OS technology platform and evolution. To match this effort, Sony Ericsson Developer World will make several improvements in its support for application developers working with Symbian OS UIQ. You can expect more news related to Symbian OS development in 2005.

As a company we've, in my opinion, delivered the most exciting new product portfolio of the year. Out of a total of 15 products launched in 2004, all but two ran Java and six support Java 3D. 2004 has also been a year of exciting progress for the whole mobile phones market. Overall, there's been a tremendous growth in the mobile industry and the technology level in mobile phones has taken a giant leap forward. Looking ahead, I think that 2005 will be the year where the downloading and use of mobile applications will become a mainstream activity and customers will finally have a seamless and convenient, easy-to-use download experience. Sony Ericsson Developer World will take a very pro-active stance towards enabling the application and content creation process and expand its activities in the year to come.

Happy holidays,

Mikael Nerde
Head of Sony Ericsson's Developer Program