Sony Ericsson will support JavaFX™ Mobile

I like when mobile phone companies tell us developers what we could expect in the future about JavaME in there platform!!!

Now SonyErcisson tell us: Sony Ericsson will support JavaFX™ Mobile

I have to make decisions about what I believe is interesting technology for the future in the mobility area!
What should I learn, it is perhaps impossible to learn all?
What different devices will support it?
We have a lot of new JavaME technology like:
eRCP, eSWT, MIDP 3.0, JavaFX Mobile, LWUIT, Java ODP ...and a lot more

When companies tell us about there plans it is much easier to make decisions!
I would like more companies to tell us about there plans!
Sun have told us about the Java Mobility roadmap!!
I like it!!
Now also SonyEricsson have told us about there plans for JavaFX Mobile.

ØREDEV 2008; Recap JavaME/Mobile 2.0

I thought I ought to sum up this year’s ØREDEV conference. It has been an intense three days with lots of new interesting stuff. This was my first time I’ve gone to ØREDEV.

Overall the conference was a good one, with lots of good mobility speakers and what I really thought was great was to get a more wider view of the Java mobility area (JavaME, Android, JavaFX Mobile, OSGI, eSWT...and more ). Left it full of new energy and compelled to try out numerous new technologies. Update the address book with those new contacts and new friends.

Some of the hot mobility topics at this ØREDEV:

• Terrence Barr, SUN had a interesting session about JavaFX Mobile, for me it was a surprise that Sun have now redesign JavaFX Mobile, it will now also work on the old JavaME platform (JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0), this was very good I think. There was a cool demo of JavaFX with netbeans, the same code and you were able to deploy it as a normal JavaSE application, a web application and a mobile application, really cool!!. JavaFX will be release soon (December 2008) and then later JavaFX Mobile will be released, planned for spring 2009 and JavaFX TV for 2010.
• Joshua Marinacci, SUN hold a GREAT session about JavaFX script (the new declarative scripting lanuage), only 3 slides and then a lot of code, very nice, well done, I like it!!!!!!!
• Jon Bostrom, MobiNoir Consulting had a interesting session about the new Sprint Titan platform with OSGI Technology in the Mobile, it will be released very soon (some weeks), with support first for eRCP (IBM/j9) on windows Mobile devices.
• Terrence Barr, SUN demonstrated what you could build with the Open Source Lightweight UI Toolkit (LWUIT) that was released at last JavaOne 2008. The think the best thing with it, it works with the old JavaME stack (JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0). According to SUN LWUIT bridges the gap between today (MIDP) and tomorrow (JavaFX Mobile). It also look like Sun plan to add support for JavaME/CDC and JavaSE in the future, that's also great. Netbeans Matisse will soon (?) add support for LWUIT. There was two nice demo, SVG GUI Makeover (SVG + Mobile Ajax) and also a LWUIT GUI Makeover (avaible soon here)
  
• MIDP3.0 specification was planned to be finished Q3-2008, at this conference they didn't talked so much about it and no answers about the status of it. Motorala is the specification lead for JSR-271 have recently decide to move to the Android platform, what this mean for the work on MIDP3.0 specification is not clear for me?
  
• The last day of the ØREDEV conference, the Public Review Draft Specification for MSA2 (Mobile Service Architecture 2) was released, they would like to get developer comments on it.
  
• Sten Minör from SonyEricsson talks about some important trends for mobility like: WebServices, Open Source, WebKit (standard browser engine in mobile devices).
• It was also interesting to hear more about the new JavaME plattform SDK 3.0, a beta release is planned early next year, it will support MSA 1.1. Support for Mac OS X is coming but when? (no answers). Tomas Brandalik and David Pulkrabek, SUN made a cool demo with with the sensor API!!
• Gorkem Ercan, Nokia had a great presentation about eSWT, Nokia support it's heavily (eSWT1.1 is in all Nokia S60 devices from version S60v3.2). In the future it will also be possible to update eSWT, the eRCP project are now working on eSWT 1.3. I think eSWT look very nice, it is nice to be able to access to native UI functionality. I plan to test it more in the near future.
• Mike Jennings from Google Uk had a great presentation about Android, I didn't know so much about it. I think it was great to learn more about it. Later when I am able to buy a Android phone here in Sweden, I perhaps will have a closer look on it. It look like it is not so hard to get started, only download the android sdk and the Eclipse plugin. The best part it works also on Max OS X!!. It is also easy to deploy you applications, use your usb cabel and install it or you could also register and deploy your application at the Google's Market (cost you 25 USD dollar), your application will then be available to all android phone in the phone, it looks great to me!!
• Fredik Olsson, Jaywy had a great presentation about developing for the Iphone platform. I am surprised about the 100 million application downloads in 60 days that have give back 70 million dollars for developers. The cocoa touch frameworks looks nice, but for developing you are forced to use Objective C, the tool to use is Xcode, every Mac OS X owner have it already pre installed, you only have to download the plugin for Iphone. My first feeling is, I am a Java developer, I really don't wont use Objective C, but Apple don't allow Sun to give JavaME support on this device, it is pity. The Iphone is a great device, I am still waiting for Nokia's Iphone killer device, I haven't seen it yet.
• Ken Walker, IBM had a interesting presentation about How eRCP and MIDP Application models stack up against Android and Web 2.0 Development, more information here.
  

Conclusions:

• For me as a JavaME developer/architect, it is not easy to understand the future for JavaME, Sun now talks a lot about JavaFX Mobile, Google about Android, Sprint/IBM about the Titan platform (using OSGI Technology in the Mobile (eRCP), Nokia about eSWT and JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0, Motorola about MIDP 3.0 (but I don't know any longer, perhaps it is Android?).'
• It is funny, it look like the best JavaME platform is MS Windows Mobile, everyone supports it, it was not like that before, I think now companies like Nokia & SonyEricsson must be careful about that, I suppose they would like to support JavaME developer more in the future, it is not bad now but I think it could be better. I also would like to use OSGi technology and JavaME/CDC on a Nokia/SonyEricsson devices and to able to easily deploy my application on great Nokia Market place and become a rich Java developer. :-)
  
• Today we have JavaME/MIDP2.0, with stagnant JavaME innovation and licensing issues (tech &TCK), it is also expensive for phone companies (like Nokia, SonyEricsson) they have to pay every different company for each JSR support. It has leads to alternatives such as Android and eRCP.
  
• It look like no one care so much about JCP any longer. Sun pushes LWUIT, JavaFX Mobile, Nokia, IBM eSWT/eRCP, Google Android. All of them are Open Souce but it is not a standard by JCP, this is pity because believe in standards.
  
• Every year I have a feeling it will be The Year of the Mobile, I have had this feeling "every year" since 2003, but no. But I am now think 2009 will be The Year of the Mobile for Java, it look great!

I am now looking forward to the Java Mobile, Media & eMbedded Developer Days, Sun Santa Clara Campus Auditorium, California, USA January 21-22, 2009. There are a lots of interesting sessions at this conference. I think it is great to be able to live view it. Of course, the best way to take part is to attend the conference in person, but for me this a good solution (I don't have to travel from Sweden for only two days, it is a long journey), I think it is really cool to be able view it live!

JavaFX Mobile at JavaOne2008?

I can't find any sessions about JavaFX Mobile at this JavaOne 2008!!
Session TS-7051, "JavaFX(tm) Mobile Platform Architecture and APIs", has been cancelled.
Strange!???

Sony Ericsson and Windows Mobile

I became a little surprised when I today read in Computer Sweden (a Swedish IT news paper) about Sony Ericsson plans to start selling high end mobile phones with Windows Mobile instead of Symbian/UIQ.

It look like Sony Ericsson plans to introduce new Windows Mobile phones during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

I am little bit surprised because I thought linux for mobile phones is what is hot now in this area. This week I expected to get more information about plans for new phones based on Google´s Android and Sun´s JavaFX Mobile not so much about Windows Mobile phones.

Update:
Today Sony Ericsson made a announcement of the XPERIA™ X1 based on Windows Mobile

Next Generation Java for Mobile devices

I think it will be a very interesting Java mobility year 2008, now when Google also have introduced Android. It look like Android is Java-based but not based on JavaME, I wonder why and what will Sun do about this?

What is Next Generation Java for Mobile devices?
For the moment we have different answers and more confusions for all of us.

We have:

• eRCP, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1
• Android, Java-based but not based on JavaME
• JavaFX Mobile, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1
• JSR 249: Mobile Service Architecture 2, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1
• JSR 271: Mobile Information Device Profile 3 (MIDP 3.0) , based on on JavaME/??
  

For me as a JavaME developer it is important to understand different companies Java support in near future (2008)!
so Please Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola tell us!!!

I also think it would be great to have more information about the work going on in JSR-249 and JSR- 271, please tell us!!

Read more here:

• Google Android: Initial Impressions and Criticism by Jilles van Gurp
• Will Google fracture or unify mobile Linux?
• how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME
• The Android SDK, Demo Video and Contest by Carlos Enrique Ortiz
• What is Android vs JavaFX Mobile? by Evan Summer
• Sooo, what about Google Android and phoneME? by Terrence Barr
• Android Developers Blog
• On the Android announcement - a bullet list by Sean Sheedy
• Google's Android revealed: Component software for the mobile world