Motorola and Sega team on entertainment software for mobile phones.

by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
June 5, 2000, 8:37 a.m. PT

Motorola is playing games with its mobile phones. On Monday the company will debut a new Java-capable cellular telephone that includes computer games programmed in Java and developed in collaboration with Sega Enterprises.

Motorola, which is scheduled to make the announcement at the JavaOne trade show in San Francisco, worked with Sega to develop an application program interface that allows game software writers to develop games for cellular telephones, says Miako Shimizu, a spokesperson for Sega Enterprises in Tokyo.

The API works with the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition developed by Motorola and Sun Microsystems. J2ME is designed to increase wireless access to applications by not requiring that one application be rewritten to work on various wireless devices.

Motorola and Sega have announced a partnership to bring a "wide assortment of entertainment software" to Java-enabled phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants, according to a statement made by the companies on Monday.

The first such Motorola phone will also be unveiled at the exhibition and is scheduled to go on sale in spring 2001 in the U.S., says the Sega spokesperson. The new games will be a generation above the basic games and animated images currently featured on cell phones, the company says.

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