Sun plans on building a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) for Apple iPhone and the iTouch with intentions of releasing the JVM after June, enabling Java applications to run on Apple's popular mobile devices.

Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing at Sun, said the JVM will be made available for free "as quickly as possible" after Apple releases the final version of the iPhone 2.0 software and SDK in June, if Apple's licensing permits.

Sun decided it could enable Java to run on the iPhone after Apple released an SDK for the iPhone on March 6th. Klein said the JVM is to be based on the Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME), and added that he believes developers will be able to make an application for the iPhone with the JVM without needing to go to the iPhone SDK.

"Now, the iPhone is open...," said Klein, reported InfoWorld. "We're going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible."

Enterprise applications, such as ERP or CRM, could be brought to the iPhone along with the expected Java games. "Once our JVM is on the phone, we anticipate that a large number of Java applications would run on the phone," he said.

As news spread regarding Sun's intentions, questions were raised about whether Apple's iPhone license agreement would allow JVM to be deployed on these devices. Klein responded, "Our announcement was based on our excitement to build a JVM for the iPhone and the iTouch, as well as our assessment of Apple's publicly available information on the SDK and related business terms. If there are clauses in the iPhone beta SDK license agreement that potentially limit third party application distribution, then these are items that we want to have a positive discussion with Apple about. Sun and Apple have an ongoing relationship around Java SE on Mac OS X and we look forward to further discussions with Apple about a JVM for iPhone and iTouch. Sun definitely plans to deliver a JVM for iPhone and iTouch if at all possible!"

Java is already widely used to develop applications on billions of cell phones and small devices and Klein expects developers will have a relatively easy task converting a Java-based application from one device to the iPhone. "That's the advantage of Java VM, to write once, run anywhere," he said.

Klein also indicated that Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) and JavaFX technologies could possibly be extended to the Apple devices - "It's a new platform for us. We might be able to bring additional technologies onto the iPhone and the iTouch."

Watch a Sun News Center Video of Klein announcing the company's intent to create JVM for iPhone. [...read more...]

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