Sun Microsystems and Samsung are jointly developing a cellphone to challenge Apple Inc.’s iPhone, a South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting Sun chairperson Scott McNealy.
McNealy said on Tuesday in Seoul that the companies are working on a ”Java phone” that would surpass Apple’s iPhone in functionality and cost less, the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo reported.
The Korean-language report did not elaborate.
Spokespersons for Sun in South Korea and the United States could not immediately be reached for comment.
Samsung spokesperson Lee Soo-jeong in Seoul said ”no decision has been made regarding co-development of the Java phone”.
She said that a meeting had taken place between the two sides ”to introduce the idea” but would not elaborate on its timing or any details.
Sun Microsystems, a computer server and software maker based in Santa Clara, California, is the developer of Java software technology, which it has made available for free on the internet.
Samsung is one of the world’s top manufacturers of cellphone handsets as well as an array of other consumer electronics, including flat-screen televisions and PCs. The company is also the world’s biggest manufacturer of memory chips.
Sun, a former darling of the dot-com era of the late 1990s that has lost billions of dollars since the stock-market collapse of 2000, has hitched its rebound strategy in part to the growing open-source movement. — Sapa-AP