Because Java set itself up for failure. Java _can_ theoretically be faster than optimized C code, but the problem is that people over-promised and/or believe th

Because Java set itself up for failure. Java _can_ theoretically be faster than optimized C code, but the problem is that people over-promised and/or believe this would be the common case. Sun/Oracle failed to deliver a JIT that outperformed optimized C code in the common case. Java also messed up and was too preoccupied on getting faster throughput (in too specialized circumstances) and didn't focus much on latency/user-responsiveness. End users don't care about theory. The only care about their individual user experience. When they see slow launch times, long unresponsive pauses (due to garbage collection), and similar apps written in native languages running faster and being more responsive as a general trend, people are going to rightly blame Java.