Simon’s Blog

With all the news coverage surrounding Google’s new Android platform, I wondered what the state of play was with Sun’s new JavaFX Mobile platform was. It seems that the current state of play is this: software emulators, and actual developer handsets (built by openmoko, at a guess), will be made available near the beginning of 2008.

In previous incarnations, the basic platform has been “almost ready” for a couple of years now. The big questions are: a) whether Sun has been able to debug the platform to the point where it’s robust; and b) whether the hardware has moved on to the point where the technology can run smoothly (as opposed to being slow and clunky).   JavaFX Mobile devices promise a lot of benefits for developers and consumers alike - let’s hope the platform delivers.

No official word yet on whether any handset manufacturers are committed to bringing JavaFX Mobile handsets to market (although there are rumours that at least one commercial agreement is in place).