Java ME as a Platform for Mobile Application Development

Despite the wide range of old existing mobile application development platforms for Symbian, Android, iPhone, etc. and the newly appeared (Bada), Java ME is still the dominant mobile application development platform.

The class libraries used in Java ME are heavily cut variant of the standard Java SE library plus several classes oriented to working under the device with limited resources. Although the platform itself is constantly improving due to the expansion of the list of specifications (JSR) and functional possibilities if hardware based on the given platform, the support of the CLDC 1.0 configuration and the MIDP 2.0 profile are still classics. If mobile app developers use this configuration while developing the product, they can be sure that the mobile application will work on most modern mobile devices with Java ME support.

The software for development under Java ME platform can be divided into two classes: general and specific development environment under the certain manufacturer (Motorola, LG and so on). Net Beans and Eclipse with the installed plug-ins for Java ME application development belong to the general software. Motodev SDK for Java ME is an example of specific software.

Apart from the development environment software developers also need the installed Java SE SDK (the higher the version, the better) and J2ME Wireless Toolkit (WTK), a set of tools and emulators for creating and debugging midlets.

Java ME specifies two base configurations which define the requirements to the virtual machine as well as the minimal set of base classes: CLDC (Connected Limited Device Configuration) and CDC (Connected Device Configuration).

At present the most popular configuration is CLDC for which the profile MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) was created. The applications written for this profile are called midlets.

The CLDC configuration is widely used for mobile application development in most modern mobile phones and portable organizers. According to Sun Microsystems, Java ME is the dominant Java technology in the world. The volume of mobile phone production exceeds considerably the number of other computer devices able to execute Java applications.