Computerworld is running an opinion piece from a programmer deciding which mobile platform to work on. He weighs the pros and cons of the various options available, dismisses Java ME as offering a “very limited user interface”, and settles for the iPhone. He says that the iPhone is “seriously cool,” something destined to set teeth on edge everywhere, but also comes up with a more grounded explanation: Since Apple owns the hardware and the operating system, they have created an experience on the iPhone that is virtually identical to that of the Mac. And they have also provided the ability to leverage existing Mac development on the iPhone by providing virtually the same Cocoa Framework as that of the Mac. If you know Mac development, you can develop for the iPhone, or you can easily port your existing code. I haven’t developed on the Mac in over a decade, but I was able to pick it up in a couple of days. This is interesting to me because it sounds like an echo of what has always been one of Java’s main selling points: If you invest time in learning how to write, say, Java server applications, you already have much of the knowledge necessary to write an application to run on a mobile phone. Apple being Apple, your playing field is much more restricted, but it’s still a useful bit of portability. The Motley Fool muses similarly: Is Steve Jobs’ ongoing denial of Java a smart move to control the iPhone ecosystem? Or will he orphan the iPhone into a land of fringe applications, as competing devices lure away users? It’s a classic struggle for platform dominance, and it all boils down to one question — does the iPhone have enough market power to entice enough developers to put the expense into yet another development platform? Again, the vast majority of people don’t really care about what languages their programs are written on — they just want them to work well and look good. True, there are plenty of programmers who have invested a lot of time in Java, but if the “seriously cool” factor can convince enough of them to learn Objective C (not that big of a jump), then the iPhone needn’t ever open up to a JVM. Technology Industry