Java on the iPhone?

In the wake of the recent release of the beta iPhone SDK, Sun has let it be known that they intend to develop a Java Virtual Machine for the iPhone. While some bloggers have dismissed this as a pointless exercise in enabling browser applets, you need to remember that there are a lot of internal corporate and enterprise application clients written in Java (and remember also that there’s a difference between JavaScript and Java). Java on the iPhone could fuel corporate adoption.

Except…Steve Jobs has made clear his opposition to Java on the iPhone. And any application built with the SDK needs to be approved signed by Apple to be available to iPhone users. And a quick look at the SDK license agreement shows that it flat-out forbids downloading executable code and running interpreters. So what’s going on here? My best bet is that we’re seeing “negotiation by press release”: Sun wants to pressure Apple into cutting a Java deal by drumming up a groundswell of anticipation. Good luck with that.

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