Sun Microsystems unveils Java FX Mobile and FX Script

9 May, 2007

In attempt to popularise Java technologies across the tech specrum, Sun Microsystems today released Java FX, a suite of new products. The suite includes the Java FX Script and the Java FX Mobile. Sun unveiled the Java FX Suite at the annual JavaOne conference. The current Java FX suite is an alpha release. No date has been set for the beta and later releases.

Sun says that Java FX will play a central role in bridging the digital divide and bring network to computers via mobile phones. The company feels mobiles with Java FX Mobile may come for as cheap as 30 to 50 dollars.

JavaFX Mobile, part of the Java FX suite, Sun's mobile phone software system will be available via OEM license to telecom carriers, content owners and makers of consumer electronics items. A new scripting language to enable rich internet applications, JavaFX Script is aimed at creative persons.

Java FX Mobile is mostly based on technology which Sun acquired when it bought SavaJe in April last year. Sun has developed Java as a technology which it can license to others. However, Java FX Mobile has been developed as a product it will sell.

Java FX Mobile is targeted at small devices, but it has an interface which closely resembles the Java Standard Edition which runs on PCs, said a Sun official. As of now, Sun Microsystems licenses Java to cellphone makers like Motorola and Nokia, which then access working "reference implementation" software and assemble their own collections of Java components. With Java FX Mobile, Sun intends to charge for the mobile software. Cellphone makers are expected to start using FX Mobile from 2008.

With the Java FX Script, Sun Microsystems takes on AJAX, Adobe Flash and Silverlight. With Java FX Script, Sun hopes to become the dominant player in the scripting language space. Java FX Script banks on content creation and the large distribution of Java. Sun says that it is easier to use competing scripting languages.

According to Sun, Java FX Script can be used for anything that AJAX can be used for, with better ease. Developers, he said, get access to more advanced APIs.