Sun Powers Global Smart Card Market

Sun Microsystems Inc (www.sun.com), the creator and leading advocate of Java technology, today announced that it's award-winning Java Card technology platform has reached a milestone of 750 million deployments, a growth of more than 50 percent in one year.

With more than three quarters of a billion units deployed -- up from 400 million cards announced at Cartes IT & Security 2003 - Java Card technology is the premier platform for supporting dynamic, secure smart cards across a variety of markets, including mobile telephony, financial services, government, healthcare, enterprise ID and other markets.

"Sun Microsystems' Java card technology is a key component of MONETA and has enabled SK Telekom to deliver a range of services that, just a few years ago, would be considered a flight of imagination," said Mr. Jin-Seok Cha, vice president of MONETA business division, SK Telecom.

Enabling multiple applications to co-exist on a single card, Java Card technology enhances privacy, trust and security on the network.

Organizations like the United States Department of Defense, the Bureau of National Health Insurance of Taiwan and the Government of Belgium rely on Java Card technology for its security, interoperability and adherence to open standards.

In the mobile data services market, compelling new content has brought 2.5 and 3G networks to life. Operators have standardized on Java technologies in handsets to power mobile data services and GSM SIM and 3G USIM cards to authenticate network access and SIM-based applications.

"By utilizing Java Card and J2ME on the same phone, SK Telekom is transforming our services, re-enforcing the value of smart cards and bringing a new level of security, authentication and identity management that is critical for mobile services to succeed."

At Cartes IT & Security 2004, Sun is demonstrating a new enterprise security product, Java Card Enterprise Software. The Java Card Enterprise Software allows interoperability of the Java Card technology platform with different computing environments.