Sun has unveiled plans to launch an application store based on its Java technology that it says will allow developers to target an estimated 1 billion PC and mobile phone users. Known currently as Project Vector – though likely to be renamed ‘Java Store’ – the service will launch officially at Sun’s JavaOne event in San Francisco next month. Writing on his official blog this week, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz described Vector as “a network service to connect companies of all sizes and types to the roughly 1 billion Java users all over the world [and] has the potential to deliver the world’s largest audience to developers and businesses leveraging Java and JavaFX.” According to the company’s figures, Java is used in over 800 million PCs, 2.1 billion mobile phones, 3.5 billion smart cards and various other products such as set-top boxes, printers, Web cams, games and car navigation systems.

Schwartz said the project was aimed at building a more formal business around Java’s vast distribution network by making it available to the entire Java community, not simply one or two search companies on yearly contracts, which has been the case to date. He added that the app store will work by candidates submitting applications (via a website), which will then be evaluated by Sun for safety and content, and presented under free or fee terms to the Java audience via Sun’s update mechanism. Over time, developers will bid for position on the storefront. “As with other app stores, Sun will charge for distribution – but unlike other app stores, whose audiences are tiny, measured in the millions or tens of millions, ours will have what we estimate to be approximately a billion users,” Schwartz concluded. By comparison, Apple’s pioneering App Store recently passed a 1 billion application download milestone, but has an installed base of only 21 million iPhones worldwide.