The Java Card platform is the most widely used application platform in the world, with around 2 billion cards deployed. However, it remains very different from the other platforms such as Windows or even MIDP. However, for interoperability reasons, most applications are heavily standardized (for instance in the banking and identity markets), which reduces even further the variety.
In the GSM world, things are different, and there are many more applications: some operators have developed hundreds of applications. However, the number of applications remains very small. The main difference is of course that end users cannot choose the applications on their cards, that they cannot load applications freely, and of course that they cannot develop applications on their cards.
Such a market is extremely hostile to developers. Most applications are developed by the smart card manufacturers, rather than by independent software vendors. This means that the main motivation for these applications is to sell smart cards and associated services. In addition, the teams thinking about new applications and business models are all from the same school of thinking, which does not help.
We can hope that the model will change in the future, at least with the next generation Java Card platforms. But we need to remember than it is not very useful to get Java Card closer to mainstream Java (and Java developers) if application deployment model is not accessible to these developers. In the meantime, don’t expect millions of Java Card applications. A few hundreds will do, and few people will know about them.
No Comments