Sun Micro sees cell phones driving new markets

By Philipp Gollner

MENLO PARK, Calif. (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc expects consumer cell phones on the Java software platform to drive demand for Sun servers in developing countries, Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz said on Wednesday.

"There is a power shift that has occurred," Schwartz told a briefing at the company's campus in Menlo Park, California, about 48 km south of San Francisco.

"The marketplace is going to be defined by the consuming public as much as by the traditional IT (information technology) decision-maker."

Sun developed Java, a software platform that can link devices with different operating systems. About 1.2 billion mobile phones use Java to enable online services such as banking, gaming, instant messaging and video streaming, Sun said.

The world's third-largest maker of server computers for running corporate networks and Web sites considers the cell phone the key to growth in developing countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, where mobile phones are replacing the traditional wired telephone as the main means of communicating.

Sun's overall revenue grew 6.2 percent from fiscal 2006 to 2007, but growth in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes a number of emerging economies, was nearly twice that rate, a company spokesman said. Technology spending in 2007 is expected to grow by 12.5 percent in Brazil, 16 percent in China, 18.7 percent in Russia and 21 percent in India, Sun said, citing figures from researcher IDC.