So, you want to deploy a J2ME app in the US?
nextgenmoco.com
nextgenmoco.com
I work for one of the biggest mobile app vendors, and to get to that stage, you have to be in bed with the carriers, yet if you made too much money, they probably will aim squarly at you, and do in house (or with third parties) what you used to do.
They can just look out whatever they don't like. Even if they tell the user they are paying for "data service", they still let in only non-free apps where they get half the cut so the consumer is being charged twice for that data access. They can ban apps outright, or just make it in a way that everytime the app request something on the network, and anoying popup comes to tell the user if they want to give this app permission to access the network. Here is the dirty trick: They put up this poup for every HTTP request, which means any network aware application becomes useless! It used to be that many phones that the option to let the user say "Yes", once, and never be bothered anymore, but carriers just requested phone manufactors to remove this, and annoy the users everytime, unless the app is "blessed" (i.e. signed) by the carrier themselves.
Of course they are doing this to "protect the user", and their "network", which is total b.s.
Unfortunately, the FCC does nothing about this, and that's why Google's move to force open apps standard with all the spectrum auctioning that happened a couple of months ago, was a great step.
The scary part is that this is yet another look, on how the internet could become if ISPs or broandband providers are let to tamper with whatever they want and all the traffic that passes thru them. That's why I think net neutrality is a very important issue, and it should be extended to wireless providers also.
I'm no more a fan of the vetting process that mobile apps have to go through than anyone else, but this particular piece of FUD actually bothers me quite a lot.
Imagine if J2ME-equipped handsets were subject to the same sort of malware ecosystem that, say, Windows boxes are. Now, add to that the fact that an 0wned mobile device is an automatic money-maker for the black hats, (think 1-900 numbers) and I think there's a very good reason for carriers to be nervous.
Now, that's true for something like Symbian (or iPhone) native applications, which pretty much get the run of the house.
However, J2ME was explicitly designed to make this kind of thing impossible. The user can just kill the JVM at any time, easily (too easily - all good J2ME apps should autosave!). The program itself is trapped in a sandbox which asks for explicit permission to do things that can cost money (data access, phone calls, etc). Hit up java.sun.com for a full explanation of the security model.
The smoking gun is, once again, the European carriers - well, and the Asian ones, and generally everyone not in North America - who allow arbitrary downloads and arbitrary IP access...and strangely enough, nobody's phone's been 0wned yet via J2ME.
I'm afraid this is really is just the American carriers being tight-fisted.
Summary: The business of making native apps for mobile
devices is dying, crushed by a fragmented market and
restrictive business practices. The problems are so bad
that the mobile web, despite its many technical
drawbacks, is now a better way to deliver new
functionality to mobiles. I think this will drive a rapid
rise in mobile web development, largely replacing the
mobile app business.
Many of the applications the poster described as not working (Google Maps, Opera Mini, etc.) worked just fine out of the box on both handsets.
Sorry, but this was more whiny than informative.