Esmertec software in 65 million devices
Software from Esmertec, a Zurich-based mobile software firm, is finding its way into a large number of mobile handsets and manufacturer's equipment who are using its embedded Java platform.
Its customers include some of the biggest names in electronics today, including Agere Systems, Wavecom, LG Electronics, Infineon, Texas Instruments, and Intel.
As of February 2004, the company says it has recorded sales of over 65 million licenses of its embedded Java solutions.
According to CEO, Alain Blancquart, who replaced one of the co-founders as company head in 2002, the coming 18 months will offer more dramatic, as he hopes that more than 170 Million Java-enabled devices will be using its code.
The company’s software is popular in mobile devices because it runs faster and using less power than the competition.
In fact, according to trade publications, the Swiss Java virtual machine runs faster than the one from Sun Microsystems, which is the Silicon Valley firm that launched Java in the first place.
Venture backing
In the past year, five year-old Esmertec, has accelerated its growth through acquisitions integrating two former competitors, Insignia and Kada Systems.
The company was co-founded by two graduates of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology who learned about compiler technology from Niklaus Wirth, the Swiss professor who created the Pascal programming language,
It is a venture-backed company that counts Sofinnova Partners of Paris, Earlybird Venture Capital of Hamburg, and Partners Private Equity in Zug.
by Valerie Thompson
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.