Posted by Bezhou Feng on 10 March 2008 - 04:54 · 13 comments & 7870 views
Sun Microsystems is developing a Java Virtual Machine for Apple's iPhone and plans to release the JVM some time after June, enabling Java applications to run on the popular mobile device. According to Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing at Sun, the JVM is to be based on the Java Micro Edition (ME) version of Java. Although Apple had not shown interest in enabling Java to run on the iPhone, Sun plans to step in and do the job itself after having pondered Thursday's release of an SDK for the iPhone by Apple.

"Now, the iPhone is open" as a target platform, Klein said. The free JVM would be made available via Apple's AppStore marketplace for third-party applications. "We're going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible...It's a new platform for us. We might be able to bring additional technologies onto the iPhone and the iTouch." Apple could not be reached for comment on Sun's plans in time for this article.

View: Full Story at InfoWorld



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Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by Hell-In-A-Handbasket on 10 Mar 2008 - 06:08
whats an iTouch ?

only thought there was the iPhone and iPod Touch
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by instant.human on 10 Mar 2008 - 06:18
maybe the iTouch is just a typo. =)

expected, imho, but nice for iphone/ipod touch owners, i guess. =)

my friend is missing flash badly, though. like many others, i suppose. but 2.0 will bring it, as far as ive heard. =)
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by RhythmFlirt on 10 Mar 2008 - 07:28
This looks like a good come back for iPhone.

Can't wait for Java and Flash!
(7 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by djprotoss on 10 Mar 2008 - 08:29
I'd be surprised. Half the point of the iPhone SDK setup is so that apple can review everything that gets uploaded. They explicitly ban programs which then act as a loader shell for other programs (e.g. a JVM) so they can ensure the only way to get stuff on your phone/touch is either stuff you have compiled yourself (not a lot they can do about that whilst giving you the sdk) or that they have vetted.
Either sun has got some back-door dealing setup apple haven't announced yet, or more likely, sun is relying on the demand for java to force apple to allow it...
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by mattrobs on 10 Mar 2008 - 09:08
Exactly. There's no way in hell Apple will allow Java on the iPhone. This is just a publicity stunt.
Quote this comment #4.2 Posted by cork1958 on 10 Mar 2008 - 12:09
(mattrobs said @ #4.1)
Exactly. There's no way in hell Apple will allow Java on the iPhone. This is just a publicity stunt.


Cool. Don't want or have Sun's junk on ANY of my stuff.
Quote this comment #4.3 Posted by eSouL on 10 Mar 2008 - 12:53
(cork1958 said @ #4.2)
Cool. Don't want or have Sun's junk on ANY of my stuff.

You know, you don't have to install it.
Quote this comment #4.4 Posted by z0phi3l on 10 Mar 2008 - 14:36
(eSouL said @ #4.3)
(cork1958 said @ #4.2)
Cool. Don't want or have Sun's junk on ANY of my stuff.

You know, you don't have to install it.



But if Apple blocks it outright, then no one will develop anything that uses java and you won't have to worry about installing it by proxy for any app
Quote this comment #4.5 Posted by +Axon on 10 Mar 2008 - 15:52
You know, considering that Java is on everything these days, I should be able to think of one single app that's programed in Java that is a must-have.

But I can't. I can't think of a single Java program I like. Most of the time, when I see that coffee cup, I think "Oh great".


Quote this comment #4.6 Posted by evo_spook on 10 Mar 2008 - 18:45
(Axon said @ #4.5)
You know, considering that Java is on everything these days, I should be able to think of one single app that's programed in Java that is a must-have.

But I can't. I can't think of a single Java program I like. Most of the time, when I see that coffee cup, I think "Oh great".


Java's a good idea, it just doesn't work that good yet.
Quote this comment #4.7 Posted by ivanz on 10 Mar 2008 - 19:48
(evo_spook said @ #7)
(Axon said @ #4.5)
You know, considering that Java is on everything these days, I should be able to think of one single app that's programed in Java that is a must-have.

But I can't. I can't think of a single Java program I like. Most of the time, when I see that coffee cup, I think "Oh great".


Java's a good idea, it just doesn't work that good yet.


How so? Given that multinational corporation use it for web sites and services, hardware automation, and many other purposes I would say it is very well implemented over hundreds of platforms.
Of course people complain about it being slow on Windows, which is true because it loads the whole runtime and interpreter every time an applet or program is run. It would be the equivalent of loading Windows each time you run a program. However, Java is one of the fastest bytecode interpreters that exist with that level of functionality.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by jamesyfx on 10 Mar 2008 - 19:58
A lot of UK government systems are built around java applets.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by leo221 on 11 Mar 2008 - 14:37
JVM on iphone would stop apple from monopolizing iphone applications. stopping them from charging $20 a pop for their stupid apps.
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