Java dial tone backed
Hoping to marry Java and computer telephony technology, Sun receives the endorsement of several leading companies for the Java Telephony API.
Last May, Sun announced that it would develop the Java Telephony API with Lucent. The API is Sun's attempt to give Java a footing in the emerging field of computer telephony integration. A CTI application, for example, could allow call centers to initiate telephone calls directly from contact databases.
In receiving endorsements from several leading software companies, the telephony API has a better shot of winning developers to build Java-based CTI applications. In addition to Lucent, IBM, and Intel, Sun said today that Nortel and Novell have pledged support for the API.
According to the companies involved, Java has the potential to expand the reach of CTI applications because Java is platform-independent. The API is designed to create Java telephony applications that work over the Internet, as well as traditional switched telephone networks.
"Those applications can now become platform-independent," Lucent spokesman Ry Schwark said. "This CTI spec really is a way of integrating the desktop phone system into the network, whatever that may be."