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Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for embedded and
mobile device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physica ...
s (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top boxes, printers). Java ME was formerly known as Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition or J2ME. As of December 22, 2006, the Java ME source code is licensed under the
GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
, and is released under the project name
phoneME In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
. The platform uses the
object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
programming language. It is part of the Java software-platform family. Java ME was designed by
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, t ...
, acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010; the platform replaced a similar technology, PersonalJava. Originally developed under the Java Community Process as JSR 68, the different flavors of Java ME have evolved in separate JSRs. Oracle provides a reference implementation of the specification, but has tended not to provide free binary implementations of its Java ME runtime environment for mobile devices, rather relying on third parties to provide their own. As of 2008, all Java ME platforms are currently restricted to JRE 1.3 features and use that version of the class file format (internally known as version 47.0). Should Oracle ever declare a new round of Java ME configuration versions that support the later class file formats and language features, such as those corresponding to JRE 1.5 or 1.6 (notably,
generics Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...
), it will entail extra work on the part of all platform vendors to update their JREs. Java ME devices implement a ''profile''. The most common of these are the
Mobile Information Device Profile Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. MIDP is part of the Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) framework and sits on top of Connected Lim ...
aimed at mobile devices, such as cell phones, and the Personal Profile aimed at consumer products and embedded devices like
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...
es and PDAs. Profiles are subsets of ''configurations'', of which there are currently two: the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and the Connected Device Configuration (CDC). There are more than 2.1 billion Java ME enabled mobile phones and PDAs. It was popular in sub-$200 devices such as Nokia's Series 40. It was also used on the Bada operating system and on Symbian OS along with native software. Users of Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Maemo, MeeGo and Android can download Java ME for their respective environments ("proof-of-concept" for Android).


Connected Limited Device Configuration

The Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) contains a strict subset of the Java-class libraries, and is the minimum amount needed for a Java virtual machine to operate. CLDC is basically used for classifying myriad devices into a fixed configuration. A configuration provides the most basic set of libraries and virtual-machine features that must be present in each implementation of a J2ME environment. When coupled with one or more profiles, the Connected Limited Device Configuration gives developers a solid Java platform for creating applications for consumer and embedded devices. The configuration is designed for devices with 160KB to 512KB total memory, which has a minimum of 160KB of ROM and 32KB of RAM available for the Java platform.


Mobile Information Device Profile

Designed for mobile phones, the
Mobile Information Device Profile Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. MIDP is part of the Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) framework and sits on top of Connected Lim ...
includes a
GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
, and a data storage API, and MIDP 2.0 includes a basic 2D gaming API. Applications written for this profile are called MIDlets. Almost all new cell phones come with a MIDP implementation, and it is now the
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...
standard for downloadable cell phone games. However, many cellphones can run only those MIDlets that have been approved by the carrier, especially in North America. ''JSR 271: Mobile Information Device Profile 3'' (Final release on Dec 9, 2009) specified the 3rd generation Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP3), expanding upon the functionality in all areas as well as improving interoperability across devices. A key design goal of MIDP3 is backward compatibility with MIDP2 content.


Information Module Profile

The
Information Module Profile IMP stands for the ''Information Module Profile''. It is a specification put out by Sun Microsystems for the use of Java on embedded devices with very limited displays. It is a subset of the Mobile Information Device Profile. IMP is part of the Jav ...
(IMP) is a profile for embedded, "headless" devices such as vending machines, industrial embedded applications, security systems, and similar devices with either simple or no display and with some limited network connectivity. Originally introduced by
Siemens Mobile Siemens Mobile was a German mobile phone manufacturer and a division of Siemens AG. Siemens sold Siemens Mobile to the Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005, subsequently becoming BenQ-Siemens and succeeded by Gigaset. The last Siemens-branded mobile phone ...
and
Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
as JSR-195, IMP 1.0 is a strict subset of MIDP 1.0 except that it doesn't include user interface APIs — in other words, it doesn't include support for the Java package javax.microedition.lcdui. JSR-228, also known as IMP-NG, is IMP's next generation that is based on MIDP 2.0, leveraging MIDP 2.0's new security and networking types and APIs, and other APIs such as PushRegistry and platformRequest(), but again it doesn't include UI APIs, nor the game API.


Connected Device Configuration

The Connected Device Configuration is a subset of Java SE, containing almost all the libraries that are not GUI related. It is richer than CLDC.


Foundation Profile

The Foundation Profile is a Java ME Connected Device Configuration (CDC) profile. This profile is intended to be used by devices requiring a complete implementation of the Java virtual machine up to and including the entire Java Platform, Standard Edition API. Typical implementations will use some subset of that API set depending on the additional profiles supported. This specification was developed under the Java Community Process.


Personal Basis Profile

The Personal Basis Profile extends the Foundation Profile to include lightweight GUI support in the form of an AWT subset. This is the platform that BD-J is built upon.


Implementations

Sun provides a reference implementation of these configurations and profiles for MIDP and CDC. Starting with the JavaME 3.0 SDK, a NetBeans-based IDE will support them in a single IDE. In contrast to the numerous binary implementations of the Java Platform built by Sun for servers and workstations, Sun does not provide any binaries for the platforms of Java ME targets with the exception of an MIDP 1.0 JRE (JVM) for Palm OS. Sun provides no J2ME JRE for the
Microsoft Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...
(Pocket PC) based devices, despite an open-letter campaign to Sun to release a rumored internal implementation of PersonalJava known by the code name "Captain America". Third party implementations are widely used by Windows Mobile vendors. Operating systems targeting Java ME have been implemented by DoCoMo in the form of
DoJa DoJa profile is a Java application environment specification for DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phone. DoJa is based on the Java ME CLDC API that is defined in the Java Community Process (JCP). DoJa is a profile defined by NTT DoCoMo to provide commun ...
, and by SavaJe as SavaJe OS. The latter company was purchased by Sun in April 2007 and now forms the basis of Sun's JavaFX Mobile. The open-source Mika VM aims to implement JavaME CDC/FP, but is not certified as such (certified implementations are required to charge royalties, which is impractical for an open-source project). Consequently, devices which use this implementation are not allowed to claim JavaME CDC compatibility. The Linux-based Android operating system uses a proprietary version of Java that is similar in intent, but very different in many ways from Java Me.Mobile application development: Android compared to J2ME
Feb 2013


JSRs (Java Specification Requests)


Foundation


Main extensions


Future


ESR

The ESR consortium is devoted to Standards for embedded Java. Especially cost effective Standards. Typical applications domains are industrial control, machine-to-machine, medical, e-metering, home automation, consumer, human-to-machine-interface, ...


See also

*
Android (operating system) Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of d ...
* iOS * BlackBerry OS * Danger Hiptop *
Embedded Java Embedded Java refers to versions of the Java program language that are designed for embedded systems. Since 2010 embedded Java implementations have come closer to standard Java, and are now virtually identical to the Java Standard Edition. Since ...
* JavaFX Mobile *
Mobile development Mobile app development is the act or process by which a mobile app is developed for mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These software applications are designed to run on mobile ...
*
Mobile games A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone ( feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
*
Mobile learning M-learning or mobile learning is "learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices". A form of distance education, m-learners use mobile device educational technology at their convenienc ...
*
Qualcomm Brew Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (Brew MP, Brew, Qualcomm BREW, or BREW) is an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party applications such ...
*
Smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...


References

;Notes
JSR 232: Mobile Operational Management
an advanced OSGi technology based platform for mobile computing
JSR 291: Dynamic Component Support for Java SE
symmetric programming model for Java SE to Java ME JSR 232


Bibliography

* * *


External links


Sun Developer Network, Java ME

Nokia's Developer Hub Java pages

Nokia S60 Java Runtime blogs

Sony Ericsson Developer World

Motorola Developer Network

J2ME Authoring Tool LMA Users Network

Samsung Mobile Developer's site

Sprint Application Developer's Website

Performance database of Java ME compatible devices

MicroEJ platforms for embedded systems

Book - Mobile Phone Programming using Java ME (J2ME)

Tutorial Master ng, J2ME
{{Mobile operating systems Computing platforms Platform, Micro Edition Platform, Micro Edition