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20070111 Thursday January 11, 2007

iPhone w/Java ME: It's just a matter of time

iPhone, Schmi-phone. Sure it plays all your favorite 99 cent songs from 50 Cent to 10,000 Maniacs, displays images, plays video clips of Johnny Depp throwing down the pirate-rap with Keira Knightley on board the Black Pearl, and makes calls to Grandma. Aye, aye. Aye. Phone. iPhone? Pfpphft! Phooey!

But, can it play Java ME games?????

No...

See:

It's only a matter of time: Java ME on the iPhone

Here's a quote: 

 ...like an iPod, it won't be an open 
 system that people can develop for. 
 Remember, this is both an iPod and 
 a Phone.
Not an open system! Well hackers of the world, get to work. Java ME technology is open source now. It's only a matter of time before the Jolly Roger is hoisted and a Java buccaneer figures out how to put Java ME software on an iPhone. It's just a matter of time... Arrrrr, matey!

Just saw Jaime Cid's blog post on this subject (en Español) ¿Entiéndalo?: Jaime Cid's blog post

[Java ME and J2ME] ( January 11, 2007 08:45 AM ) Permalink Comments [4]

Comments:

The open source status of Java ME won't help. iPhone is a completely closed environment with no software installable on it. So the compiler toolchain needed to port Java ME just can't be used by anyone other than Apple. Problem is that Apple sees the value of including Flash but doesn't see the value of including Java... That is a serious failure for Sun and the Java brand. On the bright side, while the iPhone is cool and trend setting it is only a toy. If it can't run anything other than web applications (on a 2G phone, even if it has 802.11 which my 3G phone has) then its really no big deal. A closed platform is a step backwards from the rest of the world and while lots of people will buy it the number won't make a serious dent in the phone market... No wonder Steve said 1% of the phone market is the target, if they had an open platform they could have gotten much much more.

Posted by Shai Almog on January 15, 2007 at 07:16 AM PST #


Good points, Shai. I don't think of it as a failure for the Sun and Java brands, though. Apple has produced hits like the iPod and clunkers like the Newton in the past. The iPhone is going to be another Newton for Apple... It won't hit the mark at all and will be plagued by the Christmas Toy Syndrome - fun to play with for about 1-2 months, then will sit in a closet collecting dust after that.

Hinkmond

Posted by Hinkmond Wong on January 15, 2007 at 01:31 PM PST #

Mr. Wong, You seem to not remember that Sun backstabbed NeXT when it went with Java abandoning OPENSTEP (grandfather of Cocoa). Your CEO know the history. Steve Jobs remembers that. Why would he port OS X to embedded processor just to run java giving away any of their advantage. Open Source does not mean that Apple would not have to pay money to Sun which they already do to licence even though Apple gave technology back to Sun to improve Java.

Posted by argod on January 15, 2007 at 02:19 PM PST #


Mr. argod,

How silly of me to not remember that Sun backed Java technology as a way to backstab NeXT! :-) I had thought all this time, we backed the Java programming language at Sun back in 1995 as a charter for Patrick Naughton, Mike Sheridan and James Gosling to spend time trying to figure out what would be the next trend of computing and how Sun might leverage it.

But of course you must know that our CEO (whom you say knows the "history" of this diabolical plot) is Jonathan Schwartz now and not Scott McNealy. Jonathan Schwartz was not CEO when back in 1995 when Java technology was first backed.

How truly Pollyannish of me to think Java technology was not some small step of a Machiavellian scheme by Sun to usurp OpenStep and drive it into oblivion, just like Eiffel or Smalltalk.

Shame on me for not remember revisionist history. ;-) For that I apologize.

Twilight Zone theme music...

Hinkmond

Posted by 68.125.15.54 on January 15, 2007 at 07:15 PM PST #

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