Confusion Over Java On iPhone
Seems like there’s some confusion on the topic of Java on iPhone. Ed Burnett on ZDNet highlights a quote from Steve Jobs but draws the wrong conclusion. The quote Ed draws attention to is as follows (taken from Pogue’s Posts)
Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.
Ed draws the conclusion that Steve Jobs was talking about Java on iPhone. I’m not so sure he was. I think he was talking about Java SE Applet support for the Safari web-browser built into iPhone. That is, he was effectively saying, “No-one uses Java applets anymore”.
Building Java ME support into iPhone is nothing to do with this.
Update: for a bit more insight into the Steve Jobs view of Java, watch Scoble’s interview with Sun’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, who talks about his pitch to Jobs for putting Java on iPhone.
Asam Bashir wrote:
There’s a lot of misinformation being put out there, by worried competitors, even Apple is making fun of this in it’s new ad, ‘Sabotage’:
http://www.apple.com/getamac/
I can’t see Apple revealing any more cards and a SDK now until they’ve sorted out UK/European carriers - probably negotiating with either Orange or Vodaphone - I’d put my bet on Orange at the moment, as the iPhone would fit in nicely with converged Orange mobile and broadband package.
Rather then just opening up the platform, I can understand a possible stratergy would be to sell 3rd part applications via iTunes store, that way, developers can write new applications, but Apple gets a cut through selling and approving it.
Also, since this is a UNIX platform, Apple would need to think about security deeply, to avoid the kind of virus the Simbian platform has seen. Security a very important part of the overall marketing of the Apple brand. This may be another reason to keep the platform closed for now,
http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/weblog/2007/01/malware_for_the_apple_iphone.html
Posted 17 Jan 2007 at 9:47 pm ¶