Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sun Is Porting Java To the iPhone

Posted by kdawson on from the who's-driving-now dept.

krquet notes an InfoWorld article on Sun's plans for the iPhone. After studying Apple's newly released SDK docs for 24 hours, Sun decided it was feasible to develop a JVM, based on Java Micro Edition, for both the iPhone and the iTouch. An analyst is quoted: "I think going forward, with the SDK, it takes out of Apple's control which applications are 'right' for the iPhone." The article doesn't speculate on how Apple might to react to such a loss of control. "Apple had not shown interest in enabling Java to run on the iPhone, but Sun plans to step in and do the job itself... The free JVM would be made available via Apple's App Store marketplace for third-party applications."

3 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Slow me down, java, slow me down... by Klaidas · · Score: 0, Troll

    I wonder how fast java's going to be on the iPhone... I mean, well, you know... java... speed... those two combined...

  2. Re:Not without a private agreement with Apple by robizzle · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm all for free market competition and in the end I hope that Sun goes through with this and we get to see it all play out; however, a part of me feels like Apple developed the hardware, API, and SDK and should get their $99 + 30% if thats what they require. If consumers don't like this in the long run, they can go buy other phones.

    Either Apple is starting to see enough revenue that the business division is getting more swing within the company, OR, the engineers have some reason that they didn't want to bother trying to implement Java (performance, security, etc.)

    Personally, I'm holding my tongue for Silverlight with a custom set of iPhone controls (afterall, Microsoft said in MIX08 something along the lines of "We intend to port Silverlight to every mobile device that has an SDK")

  3. This is known as piggybacking by furball · · Score: 0, Troll

    Here's how it works:

    * Take something the press has forgotten about because it basically gets no press. Find a product that the press is buzzing about.
    * Somehow tie the thing the press has forgotten about to the hot new thing.
    * Remind the world your old forgotten thing is relevant and still exist.

    * Fade back to obscurity shortly thereafter.