The JavaFX Phone

Sun Microsystems was selling developer beta preview at the Sun Store at JavaOne 2009 this year in San Francisco, California. The mobile phone presents a new era of mobile Java applications by supporting the new JavaFX application platform, which offers cross-platform compatibility with mobile and desktop applications. According to Sun, “JavaFX is the best way to bring expressive, feature-rich content to mobile devices.”

This video demonstrates some of the views of the HTC Diamond with the JavaFX Mobile application stack. The app being demonstrated is FishSim, which is a touch sensitive demo application developed in JavaFX.

The Platform

The HTC Diamond units being sold at JavaOne come pre-installed with the JavaFX Mobile software stack, which has not yet been released to the public. Currently, developers can develop mobile JavaFX applications using the NetBeans IDE and the JavaFX SDK. The HTC Diamond demo unit will allow developers to test their JavaFX mobile applications on a real hardware platform, which offers the benefits of testing applications with true cellular network connectivity. The HTC currently runs Windows Mobile 6.1 as the platform operating system.

The version of JavaFX Mobile bundled on the special “beta” HTC Diamond units is version 1.2, which includes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Mobile Media (MMAPI), J2ME Web Services, and Mobile 3D Graphics (M3G) amongst others. Three demo applications are included with the JavaFX phone, including a calculator, photo viewer, and touch-sensitive demo application with a fish in a pond. The demo applications are intended as basic applications for developers to familiarize themselves with JavaFX Mobile applications.

Looking Forward

With Larry Ellison’s statement at JavaOne on Oracle’s interest in JavaFX, there is a good chance that Oracle will be utilizing the Sun Application store and the JavaFX platform to start its foray into the mobile applications market. JavaFX mobile developers will eventually be able to submit their applications to the Java Application store, and eventually monetize those apps, similar to other popular mobile application store.

For $210, developers at the JavaOne conference can pick up a standalone developer unit with JavaFX Mobile 1.2 preinstalled. Developers needing support for the JavaFX Mobile stack can get help on the JavaFX forums or email javafx-interest@sun.com.

Further Reading

The HTC Touch Diamond Phone: http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchdiamond/overview.html
JavaFX Mobile: http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/mobile/
JavaFX Learn: http://www.javafx.com/learn