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Sun Launches JavaFX Mobile

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Sun Microsystems has launched JavaFX mobile today as part of the 1.1 update to the platform also revealing the initial list of handset manufacturers, ISVs and Service Providers who are working on JavaFX mobile devices. Amongst the thirteen launch partners LG Electronics and SonyEricsson have committed to delivering JavaFX Mobile handsets in 2009 with LGE expected to be the first OEM with a JavaFX handset. Carriers Orange and Sprint are also involved and have began their testing. Rikko Sakaguchi, corporate vice president and head of creation and development at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications stated

“Sony Ericsson expects that JavaFX will have a great impact on the mobile content ecosystem and plan to bring JavaFX to a significant part of our product portfolio."

As with JavaFX desktop JavaFX mobile runs on-top of an existing Java runtime environment – Java ME in this case. Thus whilst a device may have the JavaFX runtime embedded into it this isn’t a necessity; a JavaFX mobile application can run on any mobile device that supports the Java ME Mobile Service Architecture. This allows Sun to position the platform as able to support application development targeted at both Smart phones and higher end feature phones.

For developers JavaFX offers a consistent way of building rich applications across both desktop and mobile devices. Sun has split the associated APIs into three profiles. The common profile is for all the APIs that are available on every device and includes the scene graph API and media components, whilst the desktop profile represents the more familiar Swing components and the mobile profile is specific to mobile devices. Therefore when you write a JavaFX application using just the common profile you are developing applications that will run across both desktop and mobile devices. Writing on his blog Sun Staff Engineer Joshua Marinacci remarked

“It struck me this morning how much of a big deal this is. I don't know anything about Java ME, but I know JavaFX. Even though I'm not a mobile developer I can write mobile apps with JavaFX. I couldn't do that before.”

Sun and its partners will be demonstrating JavaFX on mobile devices at the mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain from February 16-19, 2009.

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Community comments

  • it is a joke

    by José Abrantes,

    • Re: it is a joke

      by Dan Tines,

    • Re: it is a joke

      by Ryan de Laplante,

      • Re: it is a joke

        by ian smith,

        • it is a joke

          by José Abrantes,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          Windows and Macintosh only.

        • Re: it is a joke

          by Dan Tines,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          Windows and Macintosh only.


          I know. Until it runs on the Vic 20, it's irrelevant.

        • Re: it is a joke

          by Ryan de Laplante,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          Sun is serious about Linux and Solaris support for JavaFX on desktop, although I don't know if they have future plans to make the mobile emulator support Linux and Solaris:

          blogs.sun.com/javafx/entry/a_word_on_linux_and

        • Re: it is a joke

          by ian smith,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          Yeah, that was two months ago, and since then nothing. Meanwhile, Moonight IS available for Linux (with the assistance of Novell/M$).

          Sun are a bunch of idiots, and so is anyone that believes they will release for Linux any time soon.

          PS. I don't have windoze, so don't tell me to use that instead . . .

        • Re: it is a joke

          by William Smith,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          Yeah, that was two months ago, and since then nothing. Meanwhile, Moonight IS available for Linux (with the assistance of Novell/M$).


          I agree that Sun needs to get a Linux and Solaris compatible version out reasonably quickly but I don’t think it is unreasonably of them to focus their resources for a desktop oriented technology on the ninety plus percent of the world’s desktop users that are running either Windows or OSX.

          Moonlight is purportedly compatible with Silverlight 1.x – I don’t know how well it really works but even if its flawless it is still a good year and an entire incompatible version behind the Windows version. I’ve not seen Silverlight in the wild yet but I imagine that anyone who is using it is on version 2 by now aren’t they? So really MS/Novell doesn’t have much of a Linux story either.

        • Re: it is a joke

          by ian smith,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          Well it wouldn't kill them to let us know how far they have got, estimate how long it will take etc.

          Unless the truth is just to awful to admit . . . why do you think they aren't talking?

        • Re: it is a joke

          by William Smith,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          It looks like you can run JavaFX on Linux – see www.weiqigao.com/blog/2008/12/04/using_javafx_1...
          If you do give this a go it would be interesting to know how you get on and where the problems are. That would probobly give us much more of an idea of what Sun is trying to resolve then my speculating though my guess would be that they’ve not managed to get enough performance out of the codecs on Linux/Solaris yet and probobly don't know how long it will take to solve.

        • Too late in the market

          by Jose Pena,

          Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.

          I don't really know, maybe by ignorance, what new brings this platform even adding that is required learn a new programming languaje, some say that JavaFX tries to compete agains silverlight or AdobeFlex but I think they have too much advanced road.
          Unless I'm wrong what new brings JavaFX for us ?

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