BEA plots move into mobile devices and wireless

Software giant BEA is plotting its move into the mobile software market with an add-on module to its application server. The new module leverages the asynchronous XML-tagging architecture BEA created for its Workshop development tool. That add-on module keeps track of a mobile device's data access on the application server and can be used to more efficiently deliver rich data types to lightweight mobile clients.

For more information: www.bea.com

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: BEA is a leader in application server platform - competing with the likes of IBM, Sun and Oracle and scoring a few points over them. Many sophisticated application development shops in fortune 500 companies are using its application server. Therefore, adding wireless support to BEA's WebLogic makes sense for BEA and is an important development. However, the offering appears weak at this stage. There is more to wireless application development than handheld device data formatting. Enterprises using WebLogic application server should, however, evaluate it for smoother integration. In some cases, WebLogic mobile enhancement may be sufficient.

Having said that, we suggest that mobile application development platform strategists should compare BEA's mobile device and wireless support with the same from third party wireless application gateway suppliers. Quite often, third parties can provide superior wireless and multiple device support but you must weigh that against staying power of these third parties. If we were to advise BEA, we would say - partner with such a third party to build these enhancements to .