phoneME

PhoneME

phoneME is a Java virtual machine and associated Java platform originally developed by Sun Microsystems for resource-constrained devices such as mobile phones. It enables mobile devices to run Java apps and games.
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java virtual-machine mobile sun-microsystems

phoneME: Java Virtual Machine for Mobile Devices

phoneME is a Java virtual machine and associated Java platform originally developed by Sun Microsystems for resource-constrained devices such as mobile phones. It enables mobile devices to run Java apps and games.

What is PhoneME?

phoneME is a Java virtual machine and associated Java platform originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1998 for resource-constrained devices such as mobile phones. The goal of phoneME was to enable mobile phones, pagers, and other portable devices to run Java apps and games.

phoneME includes a highly optimized Java virtual machine called the Kilobyte Virtual Machine (KVM) as well as a subset of the Java ME platform with the core libraries and APIs needed for mobile development. This allows it to run on devices with as little as 128KB of memory while still supporting key mobile Java functionality.

A key advantage of phoneME was that it allowed developers to write Java apps and games that could run across a wide range of mobile devices from different manufacturers, without having to rewrite them for each device platform. This greatly simplified mobile development at a time when there were many competing platforms.

Over time, phoneME was renamed to Java Micro Edition (Java ME) and expanded with additional capabilities. Although it has largely been replaced by Android in the mobile market, Java ME still sees some usage today in feature phones and other embedded systems needing a compact Java runtime.

PhoneME Features

Features

  1. Java virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
  2. Supports Java ME APIs like MIDP, CLDC, CDC, PP, DAB, SATSA
  3. Allows running Java apps and games on mobile phones
  4. Small memory footprint
  5. Portable across devices
  6. Security features like bytecode verification
  7. Garbage collection
  8. Just-in-time compilation

Pricing

  • Free
  • Open Source

Pros

Write once, run anywhere - develop in Java and deploy across devices

Access to large ecosystem of Java ME apps and developers

More efficient use of limited resources on mobile devices

Improved performance through JIT compilation

Built-in security features

Managed execution environment

Cons

Limited subset of desktop Java features

Not as performant as native code

Fragmented ecosystem across devices and versions

Declining popularity compared to Android/iOS native development

Limited tooling and developer support


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