Anders @ Abiro points to an article by Adobe on Porting J2ME games to Flash Lite.

One of the differences pointed out is the use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) in Flash Lite, which is something that is coming soon to Java ME under JSR 226 which is one of the “mandated” APIs under the Mobile Service Architecture (MSA) for Java ME specification. The new SVG API will bring a new level of look-and-feel to Java ME applications, and I can't wait for it to become pervasive across Java handsets. To see the Java ME SVG API in action download the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5, and run the SVG demos; you will see what I mean. See Sun Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5 for CLDC Release Download.

I agree with Anders that Java ME is much farther ahead than Flash Lite – just hit the web and look at the numbers (see Google Trends chart below). That said, Flash Lite, and other mobile platforms, have great potential. At the end, it is not the technology per-se what makes the winner, it is whatever technology is more accessible to mobile users which is why SMS is huge, and why Java ME is huge, and why Mobile Web is or will be huge, and why Symbian OS is too, and why BlackBerry is big in the enterprise. And is the same reason why Palm is not, or BREW, or Windows Mobile.




Google Trends chart for “Java ME”, “J2ME”, “JavaME”, and “Flash Lite”

The Adobe article is a simple overview, good article in general. But I was a bit confused why the author wrote the following under the “similarities of Java ME and Flash Lite” page:


“Both the technologies are based on the Symbian OS. This means a J2ME game and a Flash Lite game both run on top of the device UI layer. Just as J2ME has external APIs to access the device functionalities, Flash Lite has its FSCommand functions to communicate with the device.”

Saying that Java ME and Flash Lite are both based on Symbian OS is totally misleading… probably Miriam meant that when running on S60, both uses the S60 underlying OS functions… but that is not the same as as the two technologies came from Symbian OS.

* See Adobe's Porting J2ME games to Flash Lite article by Mariam Dholkawala

ceo