And Sun Aims for the Feature-phone market with JavaFX ...

Mobile Technology: Thurs 12th February 2009

Whilst smartphones may be the leading battle ground for many developers, the fact remains it represents a small portion of the mobile market ­ approximately 20%. Feature-phones, which are smaller handsets with fewer functions are the most prolific. Sun has taken an excellent foothold in many mobile handset markets, with it's J2ME software, an application and development environment to create applications for mobile. In spite of a highly fragmented market, Sun has succeeded in reaching a majority of mobile users with J2ME.

Sun will soon be launching a new version of this software, JavaFX which will make it easier to design and develop software and mobile software in particular. Java apps have proved popular for developing games, and other applications of which there are an increasing number of such apps which are advertising funded.

Sun's partners for the new software include Sony Ericsson, LG and network operators Sprint and Orange. Inevitably the company faces competition from many big names including Microsoft's .net and Adobe's Flash 10 for mobile. Even Google departed from the J2ME by introducing it's own version called Java Community Process. However with a 10 year foothold in the mobile market, Sun is the clear leader in this sector.

Cleverly the company has realised the potential of feature-phones ­ mobiles that are more than just voice ­ and is focussing it's efforts in this market.

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Sun steps up phone ambitions with JavaFX Mobile