The following is a report from the Orange Partner Camp in Cadiz 2006. More information about Orange Partner is available here.
Karl-Johan Dahlstrom, from Sony Ericsson, gave delegates an informal introduction into Sony Ericsson’s Java Platforms. He underlined that Sony Ericsson was a leading proponent of Java on mobile devices pointing to Sony Ericsson’s membership of the Java ME Executive committee and role in many of the JSRs groups. He also highlighted Sony Ericsson leadership in mobile Java 3D which has now shipped on more than 40 Sony Ericsson phones.
Karl-Johan described Sony Ericsson’s Java strategy as successful and homogeneous one that has received excellent reviews from the community. This strategy is a strategic choice by Sony Ericsson. Each family of Sony Ericsson phones share the same Java Platform (JP). Generally there is a mother phone, which is then followed by daughter phones which use the same Java implementation. This homogeneity makes things very easy for developers who are able to take advantage of a platformised Java implementation. It addresses the frequent Java developer pain points of fragmentation and portability. This is achieved through have a common QA process across families of phone (all phones are tested in the same way). There are only minor changes (such as bug fixes) within families, with the major changes in the JP taking place between families.
Sony Ericsson currently has 3 principal Java implementations which Karl-Johan went on to summarise before giving a sneak peak at JP-8.
Symbian JP-3 is used by the UIQ phones – the P990, W950, and M600. Major highlights include support for JSR 139 and 226 (SVG Graphics). It offers a compelling alternative to native development on UIQ 3.
JP-6 introduced support for JSR 172, and 205. Outside of that the main focus was on improving performance and quality. JP-6 saw the introduction of compile based M technology (compile at installation, and therefore faster start-up time) which offers major usability improvements.
JP-7 (phones such as the K800, K610, W710, and Z610) introduced support for JSR 234 (multimedia camera only) and a new multitasking VM which allowed the running multiple midlets at the same time. Developers can take advantage if this because when minimised application receives hideNotify event and when maximised receives showNotify. Outside of this the main advantage is for users who are no longer restricted to using one Java program at a time. It does allow for developers to consider new applications. Other improvements include support for the automatic start up, Standy MIDlet support, faster start up time (doubled the performance since JP-6), and improvements to support JSR 184 (MascotCapsule performance improved), and JSR 135 (overlay video, rotate video, streaming audio and video, RateControl, TempoControl in midi and xmf).
Delegates then saw a highly anticipated sneak at JP-8. JP-8 aims to be MSA compliant (JSR-248). This is an umbrella JSR which is designed to reduce fragmentation. Other JSRs that are being supported include 234 (AMMS), 226 (SVG), 177 (Security), 179 (Location), 211 (SIP), 211 (CHAPI), 229 (Payment), 238 (Internationalisation) and 239 (Open GLES). There is also full support for 234 (audio3d, audio effect, imageffect, tuner, camera) JP-8 also introduces internet settings for MIDlets, and supports networking over local bearers.