Is J2ME going to fail for Mobiles too?

While at CHI2007 this past week, I got into a discussion with some old friends about how difficult it was to program Java on mobile phones. In fact, some students working with me have decided to switch from J2ME to FlashLite, because it was faster to do prototypes and because the GUI looked so much better.

I can't help but wonder if Java is making the same mistake it did with desktop GUIs and web browsers. It's hard for me to name compelling Java applets that run in the browser (perhaps the best one I know of is GoProblems). The fundamental problem with Java is that it makes it hard to create attractive GUIs. It just doesn't make easy things easy. Unless J2ME developers get their act together, my prediction is that J2ME will fail on mobiles too.

Comments

James Lin said…
Looks like Sun is getting the message. Earlier this year it bought a company, SavaJe, which was dedicated to getting Java to work consistently across different mobile phones. And then at JavaOne it introduced that technology, rebranded JavaFX Mobile.

It's still unclear when JavaFX Mobile will make it onto mobile phones, and with Flash Lite coming up quickly, they don't have much time.
7:39 PM
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