In J2ME and Android which one is more useful, usea

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Closed 7 years ago.

I am very interested in mobile application development. But which language or framework is more popular, useful and usable?

I know Java well. If you have any idea and/or experience, please help me to take my decision.

Answer 1

While there is no shortage of 'feature-phones' supporting j2me in the wild, I suspect third party applications get very little market 'traction' because the users aren't looking to install new software on the phone.

Android is a breeze to develop for. I think you should try it. There is no harm in getting the SDK and experimenting for a few hours..

Answer 2

J2ME is much more popular than Android - many phones of many vendors (Nokia, Sony Ericson, Motorola, LG, Samsung and more) have it, and you can deploy application to them. The price is limited capabilities and no consolidated distribution channel (for the moment, Sun is talking about the Java Store).

On the other hand, Andriod has much more capabilities, its API is closer to the Java API, and it has more capabilities, but there is a limited number of phones. Also, you have the Android market as a distribution channel.

If you can describe what you have in mind, I can elaborate more.

Added Information

The J2ME market is quite large, but Android is rising fast - it is a true smartphone, a segment which has become more and more popular in the recent years. According to job trends, both are have roughly the same demand now:

Answer 3

From my point of view, Android is more and more better than the J2ME Learn Android and enjoy... we have lot of fun while developing the Android apps J2ME apps look and feel and development environment not effective compare with the Android

Answer 4

Android and J2ME aren't exactly similar in their scope as platforms, in a way, it's like comparing apples and oranges.

When we talk about Android, we are talking about full-blown mobile OS, with much more extended capabilities than J2ME. It could be used for pretty much everything you can think about - system utilities, social network services, location-based apps, games, etc. Android has also richer UI kit and lots of available source code to learn from.

In Android you have access to many APIs, designed to be used in modern smartphones, and these APIs are being refined constantly, while J2ME has started to feel aged, and is concentrated mostly on graphics.

The penetration rate of J2ME is currently bigger than Android's, and by bigger I mean much, much bigger, but business analysis doesn't end just with number of handsets of the given platform.

If you have idea for a great app, you'd better do it for Android and/or iPhone OS - it will be easier for you and you'll be reaching to users that are more likely to need such app, and that are more likely to pay reasonable price for it.

Overall, I would recommend to start with the newer platform, even if only because it would be more interesting and a better learning experience for you.

Answer 5

I think you're missing an important fact: Android is not only a platform, but also brings with it a fully fledged application framework which continues to grow and gets backing from some very big players (Open Handset Alliance). J2ME is just a stripped down version of the Java platform. That's a major difference.

Having worked with Android since over a year now, I can definitely say that is has grown into a very powerful system and decent tool support.

Answer 6

I've dabbled in some J2ME programming, but right now I've written about 4 Android apps.

My observations:

1. The Android API is a lot of fun to use. J2ME is showing its age. For example, a JSON parser is built in. And you have access to SQLite. Android's SQLite access code is like an amalgam of lessons learnt from Ruby on Rails, REST and plain-old SQL.
2. In terms of deployment numbers, there are more J2ME apps than Android apps. However if you want to enter the smartphone market, Android is second in mindshare to iPhone (BlackBerry is reinventing itself, but its API is still looking like a J2ME++). Read this article.
3. The whole platform is open source. So learning it and mastering it is easy.