Pervasive Java, Part II

85 I n the first issue, I covered Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME) technology, focusing on its Connection Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) (see the " Part I " sidebar). Here, I take a closer look at J2ME's business and commercial side, comparing several development toolkits and addressing challenges the growing community of J2ME developers faces. Java-enabled phones and PDAs are a fast-growing market. Over three million Java handsets have been sold since April 2001, and companies are racing and teaming up with each other to capture a piece of this new market. The main players are handset and PDA manufacturers , wireless providers, Sun Micro-systems, and companies specializing in software development tools. With new devices continually entering the marketplace, it would be of little value to survey all available devices. Instead, I take a quick sampling of Java-enabled phones and PDAs. For complete, up-to-date information from over 12 different manufacturers, see JavaMobiles (www.javamobiles.com), the MicroJava Network (www.microjava.com/devices), and the Sun Microsystems Web site Java-enabled phones I surveyed three markets: Japan, North America, and Europe. Starting with Japan, its leading wireless provider, NTT DoCoMo, was the first to adopt J2ME technology. Its Java-enabled i-mode phones and services have attracted over 30 million subscribers since February 1999. In fact, i-mode has been a success story for DoCoMo, turning around its performance and revenues in the past couple of years. Currently, i-mode phones don't use the MIDP profile (instead, they use DoJa or DoCoMo Java), but the company plans to migrate the phones to the next MIDP generation (MIDP 2.0) by the end of the year. Japan's third-largest wireless carrier, J-Phone Communications, has outlined its Java service for mobile phones and plans to offer geographic information and mul-timedia services (with JPEG and PNG graphics synchronized with sounds). The J-Phone group offers several handsets based on J2ME technology, including a built-in digital camera, color display, and 3D graphics engine, which can display images with total freedom of perspective. The service's 3D features are offered in the form of J-Phone's original equipment manufacturer (OEM) proprietary Java library. Mitsubishi, Matsushita, NEC, Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Sharp are among the main handset manufacturers in the Japanese market (see Figure 1). In the US, Motorola introduced the world's first MIDP-compliant Java phone, the Motorola i85s. Motorola was