The success of Apple's App Store hasn't gone unnoticed by its rivals, and Sun Microsystems released Thursday a mobile platform that enables developers to create iPhone-like apps for a wide variety of handsets.

JavaFX Mobile is a platform for mobile developers to create apps that have high-fidelity audio and video, animation, vector graphics, rich text, and access to Web services. The platform runs on top of the Java Platform Micro Edition, which is available on more than 2.6 billion mobile phones, including entry-level phones and high-end smartphones. Developers using JavaFX will have access to all of Java ME's capabilities, including security, camera, Bluetooth, and other phone-specific services.

"JavaFX provides new functionality for easily creating more immersive applications that seamlessly integrate content, media, and data across device platforms," said Jeet Kaul, senior VP of Sun's client software group, in a statement. "By delivering JavaFX Mobile on top of the wireless Java platform, Sun is now bringing expressiveness to the most pervasive and powerful platform."

Sun has created a partners program for spreading this platform, and it includes the likes of LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, and MobiTV.

"We see JavaFX as a natural fit to our mobile software platform strategy to enable developers, both in-house and in our ecosystem, to create superior, innovative, expressive mobile applications and services," said Rikko Sakaguchi, corporate VP at Sony Ericsson, in a statement. "Sony Ericsson expects that JavaFX will have a great impact on the mobile content ecosystem and plans to bring JavaFX to a significant part of our product portfolio."

The JavaFX Mobile software development kit and emulator can be downloaded here.

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