After last year’s push for a phone based on SavaJe (a “small” Java SE technology made for PDAs and mobile phones), the big buzz at this year’s JavaOne will be that Sun is buying SavaJe’s technology, opening the world of mobile phones to mainstream Java SE technology.
At the same time, we are working hard at the Java Card Forum to make open the world of Java Card to the CLDC virtual machine.
It will not happen extremely fast, but it is becoming more and more likely that the entire range of Java embedded software will be upgraded, which could leave Java Card as the main output for CLDC technology. Let’s hope that we will be able to leverage all the work that has been done on this technology.
And now, how many years do we have to wait until we see Java SE on smart cards?
I agree on the forecast. Somehow it is related to a new competitor for Java Card: the .NET card. Tim Wilkinson managed to squeeze a slim version of the .NET environment into a smart card. It seems to me that they are a step ahead of Java Card and are already supporting features that are planned for Java Card 3.
Eric, could you comment on the .NET card (Gemalto has an implementation) compared to Java Card. And point out the differentiator.