It’s not so critical right at this moment, given that we’re pre-launch. However, more resources will need to be put on the presentation side of things as launch approaches. I think the developer crowd at JavaOne are intelligent enough to understand that demoware can crash sometimes, especially using technology that is still under development…

When the formal launch is done, though, it’s not going to be acceptable to have demos crashing left right and centre, or have web-sites not work cross-platform and cross-browser… especially given everything that JavaFX is supposed to stand for.

Even when it works as intended though, it’s still not very good. It’s not going to inspire confidence in the community in terms of Sun knowing what it’s doing when it comes to design. Now that they’re building technology aimed at designers and consumers, I think Sun needs to hire a top team of web-designers to build web-sites for these kind of properties; I get the impression that JavaFX.com was put together by some developers in the run-up to the conference.

Having said that, the JavaFX technology isn’t launched yet, so it’s early days. In the future, JavaFX.com needs to be a showcase for JavaFX technology, and the site itself should, therefore, be powered by JavaFX. So, this site may only be supposed to last a few weeks…

All the fonts in the title look messed up. Is it only me having a problem with this site?

Does this read as ironic to anyone else? Or is me,

“Although Sun could have its work cut out for it positioning JavaFX against rival technologies, a Java developer in the audience was impressed.”

Then you get them bitching about iPhone and how it’s up to Apple to get Java on the iPhone, and to top it off they run JavaFX on Android! And this sounds like a bunch of Sun executives that know what they’re doing?

I actually think Sun *are* now focussed on building technology that enables consumers to get a high-quality GUI experience. That’’s what JavaFX is all about.

Sounds like Sun trying to blame hardware developers rather then accepting it has a role to play insuring end-users get a high quality GUI experience. Doesn’t sound like such a radical big deal, sounds like the same old plan being churned out in slightly different cloths.

What I would have done is to draw a line between past and current hardware, and come up with specific JavaFX branding for certain phone models. Distinguish past and present hardware and software, if you buy a certified JavaFX branded phone, you have a certain guarantee of application quality and end-user GUI experience. Something that Android will achieve, but with this plan, gives me no confidence that Sun has learnt anything at all….

However, I think the value proposition that Sun is making to developers with JavaFX is this…

If you want to know where growth is going to come from in terms of “screens” where people experience the Internet, then it’s in one place: low-end mobile phones. And also that many people willl want to experience their apps across different types of devices and applications e.g. on their phone. on their desktop, and on a web-site e.g. when they’re logged onto a social network.

Furthermore, they’re saying that low-end phones are starting to get powerful enough to run some pretty compelling, visually rich applications. And powerful enough that the lowest common denomenator, that all handset makers can support, can run these compelling apps fast. So, for the first time, the hardware is reaching the point where it could be possible to have a compelling app run well and consistently across billions of devices.

So, in fact, this is actually all about transforming Java technology to allow it to provide super-compelling experiences for the user…

That then, is the value proposition… a promise to develop a technology that works great on billions of devices and on the desktop and inside the browser. They want developers to start learning the new aspects of the technology now (various SDKs will start to become available between today, and over the next few months), with products shipping later this year, and next year.

So, if (and it’s a big if) Sun and its partners execute well on this, it’s going to be a huge deal.

Why should anyone believe Sun can deliver?

Sure Java can run ‘everywhere’, but what does that mean practically? It’s just talk…