We're talking Java here. Java is used by enterprises all over the world for mission-critical code. I have clients who are just now making the move to Java 7; so

We're talking Java here. Java is used by enterprises all over the world for mission-critical code. I have clients who are just now making the move to Java 7; so of course JSON will continue to be relevant for the next 10 years or more. It may fall out of favor among the Julia/Erlang/Scala crowd, but JSON is here to stay for enterprises. As far as contenders to JSON, I can't really think of any besides XML. The biggest benefit to JSON is its simplicity; which becomes a huge drawback in a strongly typed language like Java.