Thursday November 29, 2007 Do as I do, not as I say: Google uses Java ME tech, not Android platform
When Google wants to run their latest Google Maps with My Location technology on the most number of cell phones, what mobile platform do they turn to first? I'll wait for you to mull this over a bit... The answer is Java ME technology, which is on over 2 billion phones. How many phones does Android run on? Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Goose egg. There are no shipping devices where you can run Android apps on currently and not for some time to come. You can only run on an "emulator" (fingers making air-quotes) and will be true for the near future. So, why, as a prudent for-profit mobile programmer, would you program to a vapor platform, that Google promises to be on phones later in 2008 (what at best could be a couple thousand, maybe a hundred thousand???), when you can program to over 2 billion phones today and for some time to come? Google picks Java ME, not Android because the reality is that if you want to reach billions of handsets today, you program in Java ME technology. See: Google chooses Java ME to reach most cell phones Here's a quote: Where am I? New! Google Maps with My Location. Learn More. ... Available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java...OK. There is that $10 million in prize money that you can win in their silly programming contest (as a way to buy developers with payola). So, if you do want to program for Android, that's fine. But, if those math quants over at Google ever care to review "Game Theory" they'd realize that mobile developers will choose a platform to maximize their return (i.e. be able to run on most phones), and that will be Java ME technology for now and for a long time ahead. The Google engineers who just launched Google Maps with My Location technology did. We all should learn from this... |
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