Programming Wireless Devices with the Java2 Platform

1.2 Why Java™ Technology for Wireless Devices?

The wireless Internet revolution will transform wireless devices from voice-oriented communication devices with relatively static, hard-coded functionality into extensible, Internet-enabled devices with advanced data and software capabilities. These devices will need to support dynamic downloading of new software and be capable of running software written not only by the device manufacturers themselves but also by third-party software developers. This will make the devices much more dependent on software and will place a much higher emphasis on software interoperability, security, and reliability.

The Java™ programming language is ideally suited to become the standard application development language for wireless devices. After all, the Java platform provides a number of important benefits:

• Dynamic delivery of content. New applications, services, and content can be downloaded dynamically over different kinds of networks.

• Security. Class file verification, well-defined application programming interfaces, and security features ensure that third-party applications behave reliably and cannot harm the devices or the networks.

• Cross-platform compatibility. Standardized language features and libraries mean that applications and content can be transferred flexibly between different devices, within constraints of the supported J2ME™ configuration and profiles (see Section 2.3, "Key Concepts of the J2ME Architecture," for details).

• Enhanced user experience and interactive content. The standards defined for wireless Java technology support sophisticated user interaction and provide compelling graphics capabilities for small devices.

• Offline access. Applications can also be used without active network connection. This reduces transport costs and alleviates the impact of possible network failures.

• The power of a modern object-oriented programming language. The Java programming language has far better abstraction mechanisms and higher-level programming constructs than other languages and tools that are currently used for wireless software development, allowing applications to be developed more efficiently.

• Large developer community. It is estimated that there are more than three million Java software developers worldwide. The Java programming language is rapidly becoming the most popular programming language taught in schools and universities. The developer talent needed for Java software development already exists and is readily available.

Ultimately, Java technology will deliver far more compelling, entertaining, and engaging capabilities to wireless devices. What is particularly important is that this can be accomplished incrementally, by complementing existing technologies and standards, rather than by competing with them. One of the key points we emphasize throughout this book is that we are not defining a new operating system or a complete system software stack for wireless devices. Rather, the goal of this work is to define and standardize a portable wireless application development environment that targets primarily third-party application developers and will open the devices for third-party software development. This environment can be added flexibly on top of the existing software and hardware solutions that the device manufacturers already have. Typically, the changes required to the existing system software are very small. For more information, see Section 3.1, "High-Level Goals."