Sony Corp. agreed with Sun Microsystems Inc. to jointly develop technology enabling home appliances, digital video and audio equipment to be connected to the Internet.

Sony and Sun Microsystems said on Wednesday in a joint statement that in the first phase, the two companies will develop home gateway software for home digital appliances such as set-top boxes and digital television sets that support a combination of home networking and network server technologies.
Specific technologies - HAVi, iLINK as well as Sun_s Jini, Java, Java Embedded Server (JES) and Sun Management Center technologies - are expected to be used as bases for developing the software. The collaboration will make it possible for Sony to introduce a new generation of digital audio and video consumer electronic products, the companies said. The products are expected to include stereos and televisions which would have functions for accessing content and services from the Internet. Such content could include movies, music videos or musical recordings on demand, while services are expected to include direct access to on-line customer support. "With the approaching broadband network era, we are moving in a direction that will fundamentally reshape the relationship between digital audio and video appliances, computers and the Internet," Sony president and chief executive officer Nobuyuki Idei said in the statement. "The collaboration that we are announcing today with Sony will unleash the power of the Internet in networked consumer electronic devices, forever changing the way people think of them," Sun Microsystems chairman and CEO Scott McNealy said.