Open-source Java ME from Motorola

Is this good will or corporate greed?

Motorola and Apache have announced an effort to build an open-source alternative of Java Mobile Edition (ME), the Java VM used in billions of mobile phones today. The plan is to build a complete Java ME software stack for the mobile industry, and make it available under the Apache 2.0 license.

Although the stated goal is to “reduce Java fragmentation,” my opinion is that this will only fragment the market further. Having multiple implementations of Java, each going in its own direction, and driven by different agendas, can only result in fragmentation to some degree. The real motivation for this move, in my opinion, is corporate greed.

Motorola, and other vendors that embed Java in their products, need to pay Sun a license fee to do so. Sun has every right to charge money; they developed Java; they pour millions into promoting and expanding it; they dedicate resources to improve it; and they support a developer ecosystem (people like you and me). This is how the economy works. The same forces apply to the companies that you and I work for; you build something of value and others pay you for it.

I can only assume that the folks at Sun have expected this, and have planned for this as well. After all, they did announce that Java is moving to an open-source model, including Sun’s existing Java ME stack. What’s interesting is the choice of license. Motorola’s Java ME work, and Apache’s Harmony have both been announced as using the Apache 2.0 license. Sun has made no announcement yet as to what license they will choose. Will it by GPL? LGPL? Apache? Something new? Hopefully we’ll all know by the end of 2006. Stay tuned!

-EJB

Posted by Eric Bruno at 09:19 AM  Permalink