In the first general session of the week, Jonathan Schwartz, President and COO of Sun gave an overview of the current state of the Java industry. In summary, Java continues to become widespread, not just in software development, but is becoming ever more present in the consumer electronics place:
- In the last 12 months, the Java mobile games industry generated $3 billion in revenues
- 350 million mobile phone handsets worldwide that support Java
- 600 million Java Cards shipped worldwide – used in phone access cards
- 650 million PCs running Java on the desktop
In the IT industry:
- 100 million Java Development Kits downloaded since Java was launched
- 4 million Java developers worldwide (and increase of 1M since this time last year)
The huge increase in number of Java-supporting phone handsets has created a whole new marketplace for building and delivering services to customers, including news and information services, and online and downloadable games.
Java technology is driving a $100 billion a year economy, covering many varied applications of the technology from the medical industry to entertainment.
The major trend predicted this year is the come back of the client application. So whereas is past years the big push and trend has been moving towards web-based applications accessed everywhere and the ability to access information from distributed systems running everywhere, this year according to Sun, the client is back. Not as much in the traditional desktop sense, but because the Java platform have the broadest reach of any development language, and now as it is available on millions of handsets across the world, suddenly a new platform has emerged and driven by Java technology. People want a rich compelling user experience, and todays technology being carried in the pockets of 350 million people, driven by Java.
What’s next? Java applications running in your car…