Java will make inexpensive mobile phones look like smartphones

Next year's upcoming update to Java ME, one of the most popular platforms for developing applications for mobile phones, will make budget phones closer in functionality to high-end smartphones.

As RIA Novosti reports with reference to The Register , the main innovation is related to the implementation of support for basic web standards: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Thanks to this, JavaScript applications will be able to directly interact with web services without using a browser, and the speed of working with such services will increase significantly.

In addition, Java ME will receive support for Java FX technology for creating multimedia web applications, which will provide more advanced work with 2D and 3D graphics, as well as other types of multimedia data.

The platform will also receive closer integration with various functions of mobile phones: calls, access to a subscriber’s account, determining the user’s location, etc.

Java ME (Micro Edition) is a popular platform for creating applications for mobile phones, smartphones, portable media players and other portable devices. The technology, the agency recalls, allows developers to create programs that will work on various platforms without significant modification.

According to Oracle Corporation, Java ME is used on more than 2.1 billion mobile devices worldwide. Java ME, like other Java platforms, was developed by Sun and was acquired by Oracle among other Sun assets in January of this year.

In August, Oracle sued Google, which, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in California, intentionally used its patented technologies in its Android mobile operating system, which competes with Java as a software platform for cell phones and other mobile devices.