SANTA CLARA, CA — Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to release a Java Virtual Machine for the iPhone sometime during the second half of 2008 — whether or not it has the blessing of Apple Inc.Apple never has shown interest in incorporating the Java environment — which runs games and enterprise applications on other mobile devices — but Sun Vice President of Marketing Eric Klein said his company would forge ahead with the project anyway now that Apple has released a software development kit for the iPhone’s operating system.

“Now the iPhone is open,” he told Infoworld. “We’re going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible.”

The JVM will enable Java applications to run on the device and will be based on the Java Micro Edition version of the platform, according to Klein. It will be free, and Sun hopes to make it available via Apple’s AppStore marketplace for third-party applications. It also will be support Apple’s iTouch, which offers much of iPhone’s functionality without telephony.

The Java news was welcomed by iPhone devotees, because it will bring capabilities like secure socket layers to Apple’s platform. A nearly complete lack of mechanisms for securing the iPhone, its contents, and communications has been one of analysts’ primary peeves with the device and has prevented consumers who enjoy conducting e-commerce via mobile phone from adopting the iPhone.

Prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone SDK last week, third-party developers could create new applications for iPhone only with Apple’s consent. Analysts expect a bevy of new applications to arise for iPhone 2.0 software now that the SDK is available. iPhone 2.0 is due in June.

“I think going forward, with the SDK, it takes out of Apple’s control which applications are ‘right’ for the iPhone,” Forrester Research’s Chris Silva told Infoworld.

Sun also plans to port Java Standard Edition and JavaFX to the iPhone in the future, Klein said.