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The first smartphones had only 128mb of RAM and very slow performance. To remain compatible means supporting Swing, Java2D, CORBA, and a ton of other non-option
by cromwellian 9y ago
The first smartphones had only 128mb of RAM and very slow performance. To remain compatible means supporting Swing, Java2D, CORBA, and a ton of other non-optional APIs included in the JDK. This was not really technically feasible in 2007.
For decades, people had been producing Java forks which weren't compatible, Sun didn't do much about them, and even encouraged them. Their main idea was to charge for the TCK and the right to use the Java(tm). Remember Ghost and WabaVM for PalmOS? Remember Kaffe +Classpath?
I'd argue that the idea of write-once-run-anywhere with a one-size-fits-all UI layer from mobile to server is a pretty bad idea. Apple seems to understand this, which is why iOS differs from NextSTEP.