J2ME/BREW/SYMBIAN/WAP

[Abiodun Adisa]

Hello,
I was Just wondering which technology J2ME,BREW,SYMBIAN or wap has the greater market share. Seems to me that J2ME is a great technology but it is in an infant Stage

[Mark Spritzler]

Brew and Symbian are OSs. Brew is found on Verizon phones, which of course is the largest provider.

For Brew you would use C programming.

J2ME has an incredible marketshare with billions of dollars being made, and is far from infancy.

Mark

[Abiodun Adisa]

In essence what you are saying is that BREW and Symbian are like PALM and i can download a KVM on phones that run BREW/Symbian so as to execute j2me applications

[Mark Spritzler]

Yep, pretty much.

Mark

[William Frantz]

I don't have any numbers, but my gut feel would rank them like this:

1. WAP
2. J2ME
3. BREW
4. Symbian

Certainly there are more WAP compatible devices out there than any of the other technologies. You probably can't find a J2ME, BREW, or Symbian device that doesn't also have a browser with support for some version of WAP.

Next I'd say J2ME for sure. Again, you probably can't find a Symbian device that doesn't at least have an installable JVM. The same is true for BREW although most BREW devices don't let you install your own applications so it's kind of moot.

After that it gets fuzzy for me. Certainly in the US, BREW devices far out number Symbian devices. Almost all phones currently available from Sprint and Verizon are BREW devices. Sprint doesn't allow you to install 3rd party BREW apps and they don't advertise the handsets as being BREW phones but inside, it's all BREW.

The exceptions would be the few Windows and Palm devices offered by the CDMA carriers.

I'll warn you up front that these market shares probably have very little bearing on what platform you'd choose to launch a product or service. The cooperation of the carrier is probably the biggest factor. Next, you have to consider the technological limitations. There may be more Java phones out there but Symbian and BREW offer much greater capabilities and speed. Then you have to consider distribution methods. BREW and the BDS are a well oiled, money making machine. It's much tougher to make a buck selling Java apps.

William Frantz
http://sprintdevelopers.com
[ October 26, 2005: Message edited by: William Frantz ]

[Mark Spritzler]

It's much tougher to make a buck selling Java apps.

Really, I remember at JavaOne, one guy was saying that they can spend Half a Million on a J2ME game and make that money back in a few days. It was a keynote, just don't remember if it was Scott or Jonathan that reported that.

Mark

[lexander Bosco]

hi mark

@william
I dont understand .
is it that brew ,symbian and java are OSs?
because that what i think you are making it look like

i thought java was the language that ran on j2me which in turn stands ontop of either of these Oss?

and i think java(jsp) runs on wap too.....right?

[William Frantz]

Originally posted by lexander Bosco:
is it that brew, symbian and java are OSs?
because that what i think you are making it look like

i thought java was the language that ran on j2me which in turn stands ontop of either of these Oss?

and i think java(jsp) runs on wap too.....right?

I'll say they are all platforms. Starting with any of these technologies you can build a new product or service.

Personally, I think the term OS is starting to lose meaning e.g. "the network is the computer" and "Internet Explorer is part of the OS".

Technically, Symbian is an OS. UIQ and Series 60 are API's that you would use to write an application for Sony Ericsson and Nokia respectively. Likewise REX is an OS and BREW is the API you'd use to program. Following that analogy would you say J2ME is an OS and MIDP is the API? Historically, an OS manages resources. With Java, the resources are abstracted by a Virtual Machine.

The originally question was carefully worded, "which technology has greater market share." I'll grant you that it's kind of like asking if tooth brushes or hair brushes have greater market share, but that's what was asked.

William Frantz
http://sprintdevelopers.com
[ November 07, 2005: Message edited by: William Frantz ]