No Java on Java Father's phone

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 06 March 2008 11:52

Opinion and Analysis

The phone in James Gosling's pocket doesn't do Java, even though he designed the language.

Like a lot of IT people, Gosling uses an iPhone.

(Before you quibble about absolute numbers, market share or whatever, all I'm saying is that I'm seeing what might be a surprising number of iPhones being pulled out at IT related conferences and other events, and that's in a country where the device isn't officially available.)

Anyway, Gosling described Apple's stance on software for the iPhone as "incredibly rigid" and claimed the handset would be a really easy phone on which to implement Java - in fact, "one of the easiest."

As for suggestions that it might pose a security risk, he asserted that Java "has the best track record for security and reliability of software anywhere."

Many mobile phones include J2ME in their firmware, allowing additional applications to be loaded and run.

I was glad to learn that Gosling shares my dislike of the "over the air" distribution model used for most mobile phone applications, favouring instead Internet-based distribution to personal computers followed by installation via Bluetooth to avoid excessive data charges and to provide an automatic backup of purchased applications.

He blames carriers for this situation, suggesting they were too concerned about leaving money on the table rather than fitting in with people's habits.

"People do what they do," he said, so carriers need to build business plans around customer behaviour rather than seeking to change that behaviour to suit a business plan.