I have been thinking about how to fix Java ME for some time. The one central idea that I coming back to is the need for an on-device application market place for Java ME applications. The iPhone and Android have proved this model works well for application distribution. I think this process needs to be driven by a device manufacturer or OS vendor but not by the network operators for obvious reasons.

Java ME devices already have something called a Java Application Manager (JAM) which is responsible for installing the midlet into the JVM sandbox. If correctly configured in the JAD file the JAM also reports to the application provider that the user has installed or un-installed the application. The iPhone and Android markets have both implemented similar features for tracking and analytical purposes.

So my idea is to re-write the JAM and make it a full-on application market place. For 3rd party remote application installations it would still function exactly the same as it does at the moment but it would have an new user interface that functions like the Android Market and let's users browse and install applications from a catalogue.

The catalogue would be administered by the device manufacturer or OS vendor and would require some type of application vetting (my preferred solution is no vetting but I'm being reasonable here). Although this vetting would be an annoyance to the developer it could be offset by giving applications provisioned through the catalogue interface unlimited API permissions (after warning the user during installation of course).

The revenue from commercial applications could be shared between the developer, the catalogue owner and the network operator. You have to have buy in from the network operators else this won't work.

Applications would need to be given first rate status on the device / operating system. This means that the JAM wouldn't install applications in some obscure folder hidden away in a sub menu as many currently do.

The improved JAM/JVM would have an automatic APN configuration feature so that connectivity is no longer an issue. This is simple to do. Motorola have had a midlet that does something similar for years.

These improvements wouldn't fix all of Java ME's problems but they would at least tackle some of the ones I mentioned in this blog post. One possible contention with this approach is that the application store would be Java ME specific. I'm not sure how the other runtime vendors would react to this. Probably not very well but that's a political and economic problem rather than a technical one.