Research and Markets: The Future of Mobile Java.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c20018) has announced the addition of The Future of Mobile Java to their offering

Java was originally envisioned as a technology for creating applications to run in the most limited of environments; famously the aim was to get Java running on a toaster! After a few years of getting side-tracked making web pages dynamic and revolutionizing web-services, Java is now returning to its roots and getting itself embedded in consumer electronics: primarily mobile phones. The way that Java applications sit on top of a Virtual Machine, in much the same way as you can run Sinclair Spectrum games on a desktop PC thanks to an emulator, gives Java unique security and portability capabilities which make it an attractive development environment before the 120 million Java devices out there are taken into consideration.

But as Java grows up, the arguments about its future could throw its present into doubt. Companies like IBM who have invested considerable resources into the evolution of Java are starting to object to the complete control which Sun, as the owner, has over the platform. The Java Community Process attempts to address this, recent changes have gone some way towards allying fears, but it could be too little too late. The biggest threat to Java is fragmentation of the platform, and Sun believes retaining control is the best way to manage that threat.

Java is certainly a compelling option: it offers a highly secure environment for over-the-air delivery of content that can be web-services enabled and multi-media based. Java developers do not have to concern themselves with the vagaries of different operating systems, and can sell their applications to the widest possible audience.

However, until some concerted efforts last year by Sun, Java was a less attractive platform for aggregating and distributing content than Qualcomm's BREW and only gained its lead over that software through its advanced security model and wider range of supported phones, not through a functional lead. Additionally, when compared to the Microsoft environment, Java was found by many developers to be complex and difficult.

BREW, from Qualcomm, offers a fully integrated platform with billing, content distribution and management all provided as turnkey solutions. While this may suit some operators, the majority already have systems in place they would be reluctant to replace with expensive servers from Qualcomm, even for the utility of BREW. Microsoft is more directly targeting Java with their .NET Compact Framework, but it is unlikely to spread beyond Microsoft devices and has very high resource requirements which limit it to the very highest-end of the market.

The past year has seen the biggest ever leap forward in terms of mobile Java's technological, as opposed to political, strength. Since the first Java Development Kit shipped, the size and breadth of the platform has expanded greatly, with new APIs for cryptography, data access, high precision mathematical computation, 3D graphics, and XML among others.

Java is certainly the most attractive development environment for advanced interactive content, assuming that consumers actually want such content then Java is best placed to answer that need. In this report, we seek to assess the influence of Java now, its position in the strategies of the key mobile players, and its likely progress over the coming years as it seeks to become the standard for wireless platforms.

Topics covered in this report include:

The technology

Sun and the JCP 

Fragmentation

The Role of the Cellcos

Advantages of Java

Alternatives to Java

Open Source?

Chipmakers

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c20018