A call to arms for Java desktop developers!
I would like to call upon the many Java desktop developers out there, the guys in the trenches who produce such cool apps as the audio player jlGUI and many other awesome Java desktop apps.
Is it time for you to consider migrating your apps to the brand new, and fast-growing field of Java ME and CDC (Personal Profile) devices?
Sun was right. It pushed the somewhat limited MIDP (CLDC) and conquered the cellphone landscape, so much so that even Windows mobile websites have Java ME guides and how-tos, so much so that forums are filled with requests from people frantically trying to get Java ME apps running on their Palms or Windows devices.
But I believe the time has come to start looking at higher-level devices, Symbian and Windows smartphones. Although MIDP has established a strong beachhead on these landscapes, simply by virtue of the sheer number of Java ME apps available in this profile, the more powerful processors and greater capabilties of these devices cry out for more capable Java applications.
I’ve been playing with my new Nokia 9300 smartphone for the last few days and I must say that the number of available non-MIDP Java apps is astonishingly small, pretty much negligible, and I believe that the landcape of this mobile ecology is diverse enough that Java will again prove to be the unifying platform - just as it did in smartcards, just as it did in phones, just as it is doing in many other small devices such as set-top cable boxes, etc, etc.
But the developers need to start providing new CDC apps to fill this broad, blank canvas. We need innovative dudes and dudettes who know that true coolness lies not in the creation of “Just Another WebFramework” (or even in the exploration of alternative scripts or technologies that are ho-hum, and still for the oh-so 1990s web development market), but in expanding the frontiers of the computing landscape - to go where no Duke has gone before!
There are a slew of very new developments which will help developers enter this arena.
Sun has added some cool CDC capabilities to Netbeans, and there are tons of documentation from Nokia and Sony (who would like YOU to target their smartphones).
Check it out! The Netbeans Mobility Pack for CDC.
And though Swing is currently not supported in the Personal Profile (but supported in Savage), you can create cool apps using Thinlets, which will provides a GUI toolkit that can run on CDC. I’ve run several Thinlets (like the webstart-enabled ThinFeeder) on the desktop, and these are fast, cool-looking apps indeed!
Finally, I’ll start a simple new website with a directory of CDC apps (personal profile and others). I may not actually CODE in CDC, but I sure as heck will try to do my part 