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Java on the iPhone March 10, 2008
After revealing details of the new SDK for the iPhone last Thursday, Sun decided to develop a JVM for the iPhone after Apple showed no intention to do so. Well, for some of you, this is not much of a deal. Java is available on many mobile phones, why care about one more or less? From my point of view, this makes a huge difference. OSGi, actually developed to improve the mobile sector and fight the short comings of J2ME, never really succeeded due to the lack of computing resources like memory or CPU power on former cell phones. With the iPhone, things might change.
The iPhone is way more powerful than regular cell phones and provides a perfect platform for next generation mobile applications with its big display and the new intuitive user interface. Even better, with the eRCP project, Java already has a simple framework foundation for mobile applications and together with native GUI support thanks to eSWT, performance and usability should no longer be an issue. I haven’t heard about any plans to provide eSWT support for the iPhone yet though, but as soon as Sun provides a JVM at the end of June, I guess it is just a matter of time – at least I really hope for it!
Going back in time one can say that Sun missed the opportunity to conquer the mobile market. Java is deployed on millions of devices, but real business only a few companies managed to do with it. Now, with a powerful phone, technologies like OSGi, eRCP and native eSWT widgets, I am really curious how Java competes against Google’s Android. The newcomer against the old-timer, does a wealth of experience and a lively community stand against a giant with the wind of fortune and the hype of the brand in its sails? I guess, there is a good chance for Java and I really hope to see my Java applications running on an iPhone, but that’s a different story. Maybe in a few years my dream comes true and mobile phones no longer need a Java light aka J2ME any more, but will ship with a full blown JSE. So every jPhone ehm, I mean iPhone is sold with Java on board.
