Android and Eclipse – J2ME and NetBeans (Part 1)

Mobile Java or J2ME has been around for some time. It has it’s pros and cons but it is quite mature and secure as a mobile phone software development platform. The NetBeans guys have been doing quite a lot of great stuff in providing an IDE that’s “the only IDE you will ever need” (in my case this is still not true since I use Eclipse for creating PHP software).

NetBeans have been doing a good job so far with all the added functionality and ease of use development tools that have been incorporated into NetBeans. This is also particularly true in the area of Java mobile phone software development. The NetBeans development team has really put in a lot of new things to help the developer in creating Java mobile phone software.

On the Android front, Google has chosen Eclipse as the (initial?) IDE to use if you want to create Android mobile phone software. Google have their hands full when it comes to Android. They need to address several things in order for Android to be the platform of choice when creating mobile phone applications.

1. The mobile device / mobile phone manufacturers are willing to make devices that use the open mobile platform — Android. Investing in a mobile phone operating system entails a lot of time and money. HTC and Motorola is a start. If Google, is must be able to gain manufacturer support. For instance there are a lot of Asian mobile phone manufacturers that will probably benefit from an open mobile platform such as Android — I would really like to see how these manufacturers adopt Android and use it on their mobile phone devices at the fraction of a cost of developing a mobile phone platform themselves.
2. Mobile phone networks would have to be willing to use mobile phones that use Android. Now this is a bit tricky especially in the US where the networks are not as open as the other parts of the world. In the Philippines, for instance, I could very easily buy a GSM mobile phone and a pre-paid SIM to get a mobile phone service. An alternative would be for Google to have it’s own mobile network in the US. Recent events are actually happening towards a more open mobile phone network which can help Google in this area.
3. They would need to have developer support. Starting the “Android Challenge” is a big step in the right direction. Creating the BEST developer tools is a MUST. With J2ME being used by a majority of the mobile phone developers, Google needs to create developer tools that are easy to use and provides a complete environment.

J2ME has an installed base of more than a billion phones but obviously this includes older models with less capabilities. With “multimedia / connected mobile phones” increasing globally, Android needs to do a lot of catching up in terms of market.

That said, I am still very much interested in seeing Android succeed. This is because I believe that it’s success will provide a lot of benefits to the users. What would be interesting to see is how J2ME and Android work out. J2ME is also evolving. I think that as the mobile phones get more processing power, the distinction between J2ME and J2SE will diminish and just be called Java (?). Well Android is also Java.

So much for analysis, in my next article I would like to look into and write about just how similar/different J2ME and Android really are. And how I can use NetBeans (J2ME) and Eclipse (Android) in creating Java mobile applications.