(keitai-l) Re: BREW vs J2ME: money vs standards

From: Michael Turner <leap_at_gol.com>
Date: 04/19/01
Message-ID: <000b01c0c8c4$28d88e80$0961fea9@leap>
> >Java delivered over the Web went over like a lead balloon.
>
> How about, "How well would Flash have done if Macromedia had to approve
> every Flash file?"

OK, but Flash was always about...well, about flash.  Java (applets) held out
the promise of more, but ended up being heavier without adding anything
over Flash.

> I don't think security on the handset against malicious programs (the
point
> behind both the sandbox and Qualcomm's certification) is about protecting
> your personal data.

No, but it might be about protecting corporate data, in the case of BREW.
Or corporate image, depending on the severity of the spoof.

> What you need to do is stop people replacing the interface, or
> sniffing the browser for credit cards, or making voice calls to
premium-rate
> numbers in Moldavia when the phone's in your pocket: you need to restrict
> access to the handset functions.

Just as browsers running applets needed to restrict access to the rest of
the computer.  Thereby restricting applet usefulness to the point of being
essentially useless.

> The applets you load that need personal info - be they personal banking or
> B2E (business to employee - the new buzzword - watch for it in Red Herring
> in 6 months) will use SSL to get it from a remote server.

Assuming you haven't been tricked into using the wrong applet, anyway.

> As I understand it, the advantage of BREW is not the security, but the
> execution speed, because the code runs natively. (I think) the use of
> certification instead of a sandbox is part of this.

Execution speed and/or handset cost.  Certainly it adds something to
the cost of a JavaPhone that it's running a garbage-collecting interpreted
language.

I'm not sure how Microsoft was planning to handle this issue with C#,
which supposedly always runs natively.

> >So anyway, if you DO get a big slug of VC money to do mobile-phone
> >games, why not develop iApplis in preparation for the i-mode
>introduction
> >in the U.S.?
>
> Better yet, why not develope them in Europe, and get the added benefit of
a
> functional mobile phone system?

Plus you'd be in Europe, a whole bonus in itself.  (Sorry, kind of jaded
about
Japan at the moment.)

-m
leap@gol.com



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Received on Thu Apr 19 14:29:36 2001