The Future of Java
The future of Java is not only in the business application programming area but also in the new and growing networked-consumer-device area. Indeed, this category is expected to grow so much in the next decade that Java may be the only viable development platform. As mentioned earlier, Web appliances will run a wide variety of hardware and operating systems. It is simply not realistic to imagine a third-party software vendor writing an application, say, for a cell phone, and then compiling that application for every cell phone processor. The cost-effective and quicker way to develop these products will be to write them in Java and then let the manufacturers of the phones and hardware worry about getting a Java interpreter of some type to work on their system.
Another example of a consumer device is the digital interactive TV. The Java platform has become a preferred solution for the development and deployment of interactive digital television content. Java and HTML are the only technologies that are currently available for developing complex interactive applications, and Java TV is being pushed by the likes of Motorola, Phillips, Sony, Toshiba, and Matsushita.
All is not completely golden for Java, though. Competition in the form of Windows CE exists in the Web appliance arena. Windows CE is a version of Microsoft Windows that enables these small devices to run on software that has been developed with Microsoft's C++ or Visual Basic. Within the next two to three years, we should know whether Windows CE or Java will be the dominant operating system and programming language in the consumer-devices arena.
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