Several big names are fighting for one or all of the great mobile web software battlegrounds ‘ rich media apps, user interfaces and unified cross-platform software developer platforms. Google, Nokia, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and even Ericsson all have their own propositions, but the veteran player in this field is Sun, which has been trying for years, with mixed results, to make Mobile Java the primary harmonizing force for developers across all smartphone environments and out to the PC and media device. Although nearly all the contenders harness Java to some extent, it has often been eclipsed as a primary development and rich media system, but Sun is making its latest attempt to change that, introducing new enhancements for the cornerstone of its mobile web efforts, JavaFX.
At the Java Mobile, Media and eMbedded Developers conference in California last week, Sun said it would formally unveil Java On Device Portal (ODP) for widget applications, and the long awaited JavaFX Mobile runtime, next month.
The former is based on the Lightweight User Interface Toolkit (LWUIT), and promises, like most widget platforms such as those from Yahoo and Nokia, to speed up web services development and reduce testing costs. Applications are assembled from collections of tiny widgets, some pre-programmed, and the common Java framework should simplify testing for different platforms, and delivery to users. The ODP has two main functions, Sun’s VP of Java marketing Eric Klein said in an interview with Infoworld. “The first function is to make it easier for Java developers to quickly create these small widget applications using a consistent framework, and the second part is an on-device portal that lets that widget appear and be dynamically delivered.”
Primarily, this will enhance content delivery – the key area where Java has been a mobile success, regardless of its sometimes lackluster showing among developers and even as a standalone operating system. Carriers are expected to use ODP to get content to their phones more rapidly and so create more appealing offerings for consumers.
JavaFX Mobile ‘ first promised nearly two years ago – will be officially launched at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and will provide a runtime for deploying JavaFX rich internet applications on mobile devices.
Sun is also planning other mobile features for Java, including Java Specification Request 290 (JSR290), a set of mobile browser APIs for Java ME applications that will also support browser access to web pages from cellphones; and the Java ME SDK 3.0, due in March, which merges the capabilities of developer kits for the two main strands of Java ME (Connected Limited Device Configuration and Connected Device Configuration) plus Blu-Ray disks. Eventually, Sun’s plan is to do away with the specific mobile version of Java and unify it with the desktop implementation, Java SE.
Sun has various challenges in making Java universal on mobile devices, including its exclusion from the iPhone. And while Google uses Java within Android, it has not chosen to use Sun’s tools. Sun open sourced Java using the GPL v2 license, with the Classpath option, which allows linking of an application available under any license to a library that is part of GPLv2-licensed software, without the need to then offer that application to the public under the GPL. This differs from Google, which increased the threat of fragmentation in the mobile web world late last year when it released its own Java Virtual Machine and tools for its Android Linux-based platform, and adopted a different licensing program from that favored by Sun ‘ Google selected Apache. Sun, however, did add Android to the list of platforms supported by its Netbeans developer tools.
JavaFX itself is a competitor for other rich media platforms that cross the PC and mobile worlds, such as Adobe AIR and Flex, and Microsoft Silverlight, among others. The integrated FX platform combines OS, browser, user interface and other key elements of the mobile internet experience, all delivered in pure Java, and promising a far lower cost Java option, suited to midrange handsets and emerging markets as well as smartphones. JavaFX Mobile, which is underpinned by the JavaFX scripting language, sits on top of the Java platform installed on 1.8 billion handsets and is aimed at simplifying the creation and distribution of interactive content across platforms from handsets to set-tops to PCs. At launch in mid-2007, it promised simple building techniques to rival Nokia’s and iPhone’s ‘ now finally coming to light with ODP – as well as effectively removing the need for a fat smartphone OS such as Windows, replacing it with a unified all-Java stack from OS to application (though unlike the SavaJe all-Java system, which Sun acquired and which is included in FX Mobile, the newer product can sit on top of Linux, likely in a more shrunken form than is seen on many smartphones).
Richard Green, head of Sun’s software group, agreed at the time that, by introducing a full software stack for a cellphone, Sun was going head-to-head with Nokia Series 60 and “I guess we are now in competition with them”.