Startup Idea? Something I'd like to See: Cheap J2ME "device" | Hacker News Reader

Startup Idea? Something I'd like to See: Cheap J2ME "device"

journal.dedasys.com

8 pointsdavidw10 comments

There are thousands, if not millions, of inexpensive phones available from re-manufacturers. A J2ME capable phone can be had for less than $20. Activate it with a pay-as-you go plan if you want to send/receive data or just use them as-is without activating them. Here is one company that will sell you one phone:

http://www.zendoo.com/

Your options increase and price goes down if you want to buy 20 or more phones of one kind.

My company buys these phones, loads a j2ME midlet that always runs in the background getting GPS locations, and sells the unit along with the service for businesses to track their vehicles.

Bingo! That kind of site is what I had in mind.

Also a big +1 for the business idea. J2ME phones aren't the hot new thing, for sure, and can't do all the fancy things that a brand new top of the line phone can, but I think there is still a lot of use to be squeezed out of that kind of device.

Boost mobile has multiple J2ME phones available for around $50. Just check Wallmart or Best Buy. You'll need to load the games with a serial cable, but the phones can take a real beating.

J2ME has no future, so it'd be a poor startup idea. Trust me.

You might also want to check garage sales/eBay for old gameboys and games. They're more fun and more robust.

> J2ME has no future, so it'd be a poor startup idea. Trust me.

I don't think J2ME has much of a future for general use phones in rich countries, no. But it has a huge present, and a niche like this might be just fine for a startup, actually.

Have you done any development with J2ME devices? In the past few years I've done it..it's been a nightmare

It's not that hard in and of itself. The problem is developing something for tons of devices, which this specific idea doesn't need to deal with at all; you'd just have one device.

Not something I have the skills/background to pursue, but I think it ought to be possible to do something cheap and robust with a small screen and keys; that can run J2ME games. You'd load them via bluetooth or USB.

I'd suggest an iPod touch + apple developer membership. J2ME is horrible to write code in, especially compared to cocoa or android java.

A 200+ Euro device is not at all what I was talking about (+ expensive development environment). I'm talking about something in the 20 Euro range. My very young daughter would be just fine with a super cheap phone, to press buttons, and see shapes, colors, sounds and things. There is no way I am going to hand her an expensive, relatively fragile, fancy new phone just to play a few games with.

J2ME is not that bad to code in, actually, and is probably "good enough" for the sorts of simple kids games I had in mind. Android would certainly be a lot better, but I am not sure we'll see Android phones at anywhere near the right price point in the near future.

I enjoyed programming for J2ME, it only gets horrible when you try to support 1000s of devices, all with individual bugs.

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