I think web technologies are freaking awesome, but right now they don’t do anything except help disseminating data become an easier task. What about actually connecting the capabilities of our devices to the cloud?
Java is taking the next step forward by releasing a new JSR that will enable interaction with the Bluetooth radio inside your handset as well as adding a location API.
Adobe will release Apollo for mobile that will enable rich video experiences. Flyer is a hack built with Python on top of Flash Lite that will probably die off in less than a year, but it is interesting to play with none the less.
Microsoft says they are working on a mobile version of Silverlight, but I haven’t heard anything about it yet.
Widgets bring AJAX technolgy to S60 and in their second implementation will have access to the S60 API’s that connect to our powerful multimedia computers.
What am I getting at?
There will be a future where platforms don’t matter. Making sure your device does A, B, C and D that will then allow a manufacture to throw a certification sticker on the retail packaging is where we are heading. JSR 248 is a mouthful, but that is why we have marketing guys.
Mobile developers have it pretty bad when it comes to sitting down and thinking about which platform to create their applications on. S60 sure is snappy, but Symbian.c++ is harder than Calculus IV.
What if the future of mobile software was kicked off by a radical change in mobile hardware?
Intel and AMD have onboard virtualization technology that lets software applications hook into a virtual machine layer for improved performance. Can the same thing be done on hardware?
Applications wouldn’t see the TI OMAP 3 or the Freescale MXC300 or STMicroelectronics Nomadik platform, all they would see is a virtual machine. Java does this now via software, why not take the increased processing power of future mobile devices and build that layer for developers?
I’m just throwing some ideas around with the limited knowledge I have about all these areas, anyone care to comment on if I’m on to something or merely talking out of my ass?
Write once run everywhere is just now starting to happen on PC’s. No winner has been declared, but I’ll be watching the race closely.
Who is going to build the same solutions for mobile?