** I had written this post on 07/10/2007, but never published it. Scarily, it still seems valid a year later... **
It's clear that the next ubiquitous computing platform is going to be a mobile one. It's also clear that it won't be Apple's iPhone since it is a proprietary closed platform, and historically, only open platforms like the Apple II and the IBM PC have attained ubiquity. The last pretender to the throne was Palm, but delays in incorporating modern features like multi-tasking and multimedia support, have relegated it to an also-ran. It also seems likely that the next ubiquitous computing platform will incorporate the two heavy weights of the Open Systems world - Linux and Java. So, could the next ubiquitous computing platform be JavaFX Mobile?
It's been two months since Sun announced this confusingly named JavaFX Mobile product at JavaOne 2007. Based on technology aquired from SavaJe Technologies, JavaFX Mobile is a "Java Phone" product from Sun that consists of a proprietary application layer, a CDC Personal Basis Profile and a small Linux kernel. Contrary to what you might believe, JavaFX Mobile is not part of the JavaME family of specifications. Unfortunately, Sun did little to clear up this confusion at JavaOne, often equating JavaME to JavaFX Mobile. In reality, JavaFX Mobile is actually an implementation of a JavaME + Linux stack, with proprietary extensions. (Besides equating JavaME to JavaFX Mobile, Sun also equated JavaSE with Netbeans and JavaEE with Glassfish. Very Annoying!)
JavaFX Mobile is so named, because it will be able to run applications written in JavaFX Script (formerly known as F3). This aspect of JavaFX Mobile was hyped no end at JavaOne, even though the support for JavaFX script was actually hacked together only a couple of weeks before. It showed, when the demos failed spectacularly on stage. Hopefully in the future we will be able to see a working implementation to judge if it lives to the hype.
Sun intends to license JavaFX Mobile as a binary product to phone manufacturers. Sun claims that this will decrease fragmentation, as phone manufacturers will now have a "standard" JavaME implementation to use in their phones. But Tier-1 phone manufacturers like Motorola and Nokia have already decided their Linux + JavaME stacks. At the most, second tier phone manufacturers looking to clone the iPhone may license JavaFX Mobile. So if anything, JavaFX Mobile will increase fragmentation by adding another JavaME implementation into the mix.
SavaJe Technologies had been working on this Linux + JavaME stack since 1999, but was unable to get any device manufacturers to adopt it. What makes Sun think that they will do any better? Do they really think that by simply adding support for JavaFX Script device manufacturers would be lining up to license it? And how do they intend to compete against mobile Linux distributions like OpenMoko, Access Linux Platform, UbuntuMobile, Greensuite, WindRiver and Mobilinux? Or against mobile application frameworks like Qtopia, Hiker and Maemo? Or even against IBM's J9 CDC implementation?
JavaFX Mobile is not all bad. The technology behind it is certainly impressive - it even implements telephony services in Java! And it looks visually stunning. Who knows? Maybe Sun will even deliver on the support for JavaFX Script and other multimedia technologies. But the question remains: How is Sun going to get JavaFX widely adopted?
I think it's possible, but not in it's current incarnation. IMO, Sun needs to target mobile Linux distributors instead of device manufacturers. For that, they need to break JavaFX Mobile into it's component parts: Linux kernel + CDC implementation + application layer, and license them individually. That way, mobile linux distributors can choose the parts they're interested in and integrate them into their distribution. Having just the JavaFX Mobile CDC implementation be the standard JavaME implementation for all mobile Linux distributions would go a longer way towards solving the problem of fragmentation than Sun's current approach. Finally, Sun needs to start acting like a responsible member of the mobile Linux community and join the standards organizations like LiPS, LiMo, MLI, and CELF. When you're too late in the Mobile Linux game to compete, you must collaborate!
In conclusion, I don't think JavaFX Mobile will be the next ubiquitous computing platform. But if it is broken up, I'm sure that the next ubiquitous computing platform will incorporate parts of this cool technology.
What do you think will be the next ubiquitous platform?
