Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Java ME, the way to go for mobilizing services
The term J2ME is no more, so I guess I have to start using the proper term Java ME.
If it hasn't been clear enough before, using Java ME to extend online services to mobile phones is the way to go. Hands down. To make all those projects possible, there's need for good tools, which is what this survey is about. Developers don't seem to be very happy with current testing and debugging tools.
The major problem I see is that you currently have to verify your application on all phones that you claim to support. This is plain silly and simply has to go away for this to be feasible in the long term. A major reason why this is so now is that there's no single source of Java ME implementations (which is bad), but also that Java ME is so quickly enhanced with new features (which is good, provided it's backwards compatible and can be sensed run-time, which is the case). Sun opted for third party to make Java ME KVMs and class libraries, which is a big blunder. Also, notably MIDP 1.0 lacked in important functionality, so manufacturers added their own. Nokia UI is a good example, which was needed at the time, but that I hope no one is using anymore.
Quote: 87% of respondents have made the move to extend mission-critical applications to mobile devices (up sharply from 75% only six months ago).
Quote: Approximately 52% of respondents are currently working with Java ME ... compared to 46% six months ago
Wireless Developers Dish out Poor Grades on Quality of Development Tools in Latest Evans Data Study
If it hasn't been clear enough before, using Java ME to extend online services to mobile phones is the way to go. Hands down. To make all those projects possible, there's need for good tools, which is what this survey is about. Developers don't seem to be very happy with current testing and debugging tools.
The major problem I see is that you currently have to verify your application on all phones that you claim to support. This is plain silly and simply has to go away for this to be feasible in the long term. A major reason why this is so now is that there's no single source of Java ME implementations (which is bad), but also that Java ME is so quickly enhanced with new features (which is good, provided it's backwards compatible and can be sensed run-time, which is the case). Sun opted for third party to make Java ME KVMs and class libraries, which is a big blunder. Also, notably MIDP 1.0 lacked in important functionality, so manufacturers added their own. Nokia UI is a good example, which was needed at the time, but that I hope no one is using anymore.
Quote: 87% of respondents have made the move to extend mission-critical applications to mobile devices (up sharply from 75% only six months ago).
Quote: Approximately 52% of respondents are currently working with Java ME ... compared to 46% six months ago
Wireless Developers Dish out Poor Grades on Quality of Development Tools in Latest Evans Data Study
