You read the headline right – mobile domination planned by Sun.
This conference is probably the most packed with content developer event I have attended, with TONS of sessions each day. One topic that is having a slew of 
sessions, several each day is JavaFX. Today during the end of day keynote at JavaOne Sun focused on their new hope for Java on mobile devices as well as bringing out several partners.
Now the first thing to understand is the when Sun says mobile, they don’t just mean mobile phones, they also mean laptops, netbooks, televisions, pretty much any tech device that you would utilize on the go. JavaFX is a multimedia and user interface layer that runs on top of a core Java stack such as ME on mobile devices or SE for the desktop, as well as televisions (video below). Right now a lot of you are reading this, but still crunching the words sun, mobile, domination and thinking of some clever insult to leave in the comments of this post involving the iPhone or Android. Before you do, there is something to consider:
There are currently 2.6 Billion devices in the world running some flavor of Java. People LOVE to hype the iPhone and its wonderful developer community and the slew of apps available. Even if Apple increases sales 10x in the next year they, like all other mobile technologies, are way behind in possible reach. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is a fantastic device, and Android will be someday, but reach is what its all about for developers.
Sun has been working hard on the tech and still will be continuing rapid advancements. A recent 1.2 release came out and Sun already has tapped the huge Java community to the tune of 400k downloads of the SDK. The great benefit of the technology can be compared to writing web apps in html/CS/javascript and running across millions of browsers will minimal differences between OS/browser. Now that is not from a technical standpoint, the technology is more difficult to get into then html/js, but still provides a fantastic toolset to make ones life easier.
There is still the fragmentation issue Java has. You have different handset providers and different carriers making slight tweaks that may cause developers some headaches when going after those 2.6 Billion targets. Sun is trying to get around the fragmentation issues. Along these lines Sun is working with a set of partners/carriers to work hard on standardizing the underlying JVM (Java Virtual Machine) that each deploys to prevent “breakage” on developers apps and quicker approval/signing. JATAF was formed to lead the battle against fragmentation and has members in Orange, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone.
To show off some examples of apps that can and have been built Sun brought out some partners to show off some stuff.
They brought out PayPal to touch a nerve about developers building solutions that require/provide payment solutions. They showed an example app of paying anyone using their email address via a mobile device and your PayPal account. PayPal also announced they will be holding their first ever developer conference later this year as they will be launching new tools/services for developers to tap into and heavily targeting the mobile sector. Check out http://www.x.com for more info to come for the event.
Sun also showed of media application running JavaFX that provides various similar experiences across the desktop, phone and television. Overall a slick demo showing off the power of the UI tools as well as video play back and interactivity on the television. I managed to snag a piece of his demo on video, it is here:
Another partner demo was with Qualcomm of all people. I was unaware of what I guess is a several year relationship between the two companies. Qualcomm, with their new Snapdragon platform, is keen on making their chips a must have for manufacturers of both mobile phones and netbooks, or what they call smartbooks. They showed off a what they referred to as the Elmo tablet device and said that we will see Qualcomm enabled smartbooks later this year and into 2010. Checkout http://hellosmartbook.com for more info.
Overall an action packed keynote with lots of info around what Sun is planning over the next couple of years. I have my doubts about developers creating many desktop apps in JavaFX but if they can execute on the vision they are touting to developers they will have a very easy time getting everyone to jump on board the bandwagon and attacking the mobile front.
Now you may proceed with your iPhone fan boy hype in the comments, or you can save them for next week when I post about my new Pre.
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