Sony Ericsson today announced its first mobile phone to support Mobile Services Architecture (MSA), the next-generation Java umbrella standard (JSR-248).

The Z750 clamshell phone is the first phone based on Sony Ericsson's Java Platform 8 (JP-8), supporting a range of new Java programming features including instant messaging / chat and presence based functionality, handling banking, payment transactions, user identification and authentication through secure encryption technology, mapping and other location-aware applications.

The new MSA umbrella standard (JSR-248) aims to reduce fragmentation for the Java community in two ways. Firstly, MSA defines a clear set of component Java Specification Requests (JSR’s) that must be supported (mandatory JSR’s) on next-generation mobile phones. Secondly, MSA gives less room for interpretation in the implementation of the JSR’s by clarifying the conditions for interaction between them and for optional JSR’s.

The new mandatory application programming interfaces (API's) supported through MSA include 3D graphics, personal information management, Bluetooth™, Scalable Vector Graphics, web services, location services and payment services for Java ME (Micro Edition). Sony Ericsson has supported several of these API’s in its earlier Java Platform versions but with MSA there is finally industry alignment and a clear set of expectations on the implementation of these JSR’s.

New for Sony Ericsson Java Platform 8 for mass-market feature phones are the following API's:

MSA umbrella standard JSR-248 :

• Security & Trust Services API (JSR-177)
• Location API (JSR-179)
• SIP API for Java ME (JSR-180)
• Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR-184) updated to version 1.1 from previous
• Java Platform versions
• Content Handler API (JSR-211)
• Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API for Java ME (JSR-226)
• Payment API (JSR-229)
• Mobile Internationalization API (JSR-238)