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Understanding JTWI: will manufacturers and carriers finally get the Java technology platform needed to power their next-generation handsets?

Article Excerpt
Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI) will have a huge impact on Java applications, enabling them to have much greater functionality. Here we look at some of the capabilities we can expect to see in the next generation of Java for mobile phones.

Introduction by Bill Ray, WBT's Editor-in-Chief

Java was supposed to offer Write Once, Run Anywhere, but anyone involved in developing applications for the mobile industry knows well that this maxim is true of only the most basic applications. Inconsistencies in implementations, and proprietary extensions, mean that every application has to be tweaked for each device it runs on, or pay the price in usability and speed. As an example, consider sound: MIDP 1.0 has no capability to make noise, which is something of a drawback when trying to create a mobile gaming experience. Thus every manufacturer--and device--has its own API for making noises, meaning that no game will run on two different devices.

But mobile Java has come a long way, and with Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI; also known as JSR 185) new standards are required and possible inconsistencies addressed. Support for JTWI has been enormous across the business, with carriers, device manufacturers, and even customers embracing the standard as quickly as they can, eager to make real the dream Java has offered for so long, but realized so rarely. Even while the official tests are incomplete, the first devices are on the market, and JTWI looks well placed to supplant other Java standards in record time. We asked Applix to run us through what developers can expect of the first Java standard to really deserve the name.

Java Emerges As a Dominant Handset Platform

Readers of this publication are almost certainly familiar with the rapid evolution of Java technology in mobile phones. Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) is one of Sun's biggest success stories in recent years. The numbers are impressive. According to Sun, its mobile Java technology is incorporated in more than 120 million handsets worldwide; used by 70 mobile carriers worldwide; and...

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