Software Everywhere — David Beers on Mobile Computing

If you ever need to jump-start your enthusiasm for mobile Java development, I recommend listening to John Bostrom talk for an hour. John is the Director of Emerging Technologies at Nokia and he has for some time now been evangelizing a technology that could bring Internet-speed dynamism and openness to the currently static, closed Java ME platform. Someone needs to coin a cool name for this technology the way Jesse James Garrett did with AJAX, because what it does for mobile applications is every bit as momentous as what AJAX has done for Web 2.0, possibly more so. Alas, for now all we have are a cluster of obscure acronyms: OSGi, JSR 232, and eRCP.

As part of my coverage of JavaOne 2007 for InfoQ.com I wrote up a session I attended on mobile OSGi, and you can get more detail from that piece as well as a big picture overview in this earlier post. For now I only have time for the OSGi elevator pitch: Imagine developers didn't have to wait for the Java Community Process, the device makers, and the carriers to get powerful new APIs onto handsets. Imagine instead a service-oriented component architecture on the phone that enables developers to deploy new Java APIs to the handsets themselves and to write applications that discover and use these components immediately. Want to have a cool Flash Lite UI for your Java app instead of dowdy LCDUI forms? Want a nice object-oriented database that can be shared by a suite of Java applications? Want to access Google services (or any web service) from convenient Java APIs rather than through tedious SOAP interfaces? That last one is the big one: the ability to deploy and consume software components that encapsulate Web 2.0 services as simple, tested APIs on the mobile. This is Mobile 2.0: a framework that enables developers to mash up local data with Internet APIs and do it in Internet time the way web developers do today.

Even more than a cool moniker for this (Bostrom calls it "the remote control for Web 2.0") what we've really needed to see is a commitment by device makers to start shipping stuff with this technology baked in. Now it seems that Nokia and Sprint have stepped up to the plate, both with data-centric mobile devices and with handsets starting with the upcoming Nokia E90. As I mentioned earlier, you can start using OSGi today to build mobile mashups with the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.

As my InfoQ.com article points out, there are some technical questions remaining to be worked out, as well as questions about JSR 232's reception by carriers who aren't as open to risk as Sprint is today. And there are some components that people will try to bring to mobiles that probably don't belong there because they are too heavy to use in resource-constrained devices. But overall, this looks like a great way for "innovation by composition" to break out of the data center and into your pocket.

Also check out Rick Merritt's excellent piece at Embedded.com, which looks at OSGi within the broader picture of other new mobile Java technologies like MIDP 3.0 and JavaFX Mobile.

Related issues, like Nokia's transformation into a computer company, and Motorola's adoption of open platforms are discussed in this week's excellent Carnival of the Mobilists, presented elegantly by Martin Sauter. An especially warm commendation goes out to Barbara Ballard's comparative analysis of local, server, and mixed mode applications. I like her term "flow interaction" to describe the rhythmic, satisfying user experience of a really responsive mobile app. It's a great Carnival this week, so definitely go check it out.