Sun going into the Java App Store business.

Mainly to promote the Java runtime but it makes sense. Jonathan Schwartz' blog from Monday outlined the new Project Vector in part but he's leaving the meat on the bone until JavaOne.

And that's what Project Vector is designed to deliver - Vector is a network service to connect companies of all sizes and types to the roughly one billion Java users all over the world. Vector (which we'll likely rename the Java Store), has the potential to deliver the world's largest audience to developers and businesses leveraging Java and JavaFX. What kinds of companies might be interested?

Applications are on application and will have to be real good to get on the space. As with Apple's way of doing things the apps that will really make it are the ones that get profiled on their site. You need money to make money.

It's an interesting concept (though you'll see by the comments that there a few confused about how it's really going to work for developers). No real mention on J2ME apps either, this looks like a big push for JavaFX on the desktop to get away from all those nasty browers.

The J2ME App Store Manifesto

Something in it for the developer?
There has to be a revenue share between the store and the developer. Sun's main failing on J2ME was to oversell to the developer and not talk up the benefits to the everyday consumer. Apple has got the mix right with a 70/30 split, any other app store should be looking at the same. Developers still have to shout loud about their apps regardless of platform. You can make the money but it takes effort on both our parts.

Intelligent ID
With the iPhone there's really only one phone to worry about. This is a major showstopper on a decent app store for Java mobile apps. I have a Nokia E51, brilliant phone, but I don't really know what apps are going to work with it. There has to be some form of intelligence detection when the phone queries the store, "Hi I'm an E51 what apps will work...."

Verification of Apps
Manual checking of newly registered apps. Apple are choosy, so am I. I want the creme de la creme of J2ME apps, it's makes it easier for me to sell them. Developers should be striving to get their apps within the top ten of the Java App Store.

Is Free gonna do it?
Is free a real business model for you? For games, more than likely not. For some services that can make revenue from other sources like cost per click activity or supplier buy in then fair enough. I don't have an iPhone but I was impressed with the idea behind Yowza (that nice chap from Heroes, Greg Grunberg, it was his idea and boy that helps with the marketing too).

Sun heavily got into the "community" and the open source thing but some developers mistaken that community as free. It's nice to give some stuff away but it's also nice to put food on the table. The Cathedral and The Bazaar still has a place in the hi tech economy but are the open sourcers really making money?

Build It and They Will Come
Now I'm working on that bit....

So, are you building J2ME apps?
Good ones, real good ones, yeah. Perhaps we should talk.

Could J2ME ever had an equivilent App Store?

I've hit a real big junction at the moment. It's a whacking great T junction of a decision that I have to make. It all boils down to mobile apps. With OpenCoffeeDerry approaching this Thursday I'm giving lots of ideas a lot of thought. I missed BarcampBelfast yesterday, but I was recovering from photographing a wedding the day before. Anyway, I digress....

One of the reasons that the iPhone and iPod Touch work so well isn't really down to the hardware, it's down to Apple's way of working in terms of the App Store. You can to sell on the App Store then you have to register as a developer (at $99) then write your app and get it approved. So there's already a level of commitment to producing a good app. If it ain't good it don't get in (you on the guest list, sir?).

Over to J2ME.... hmm I'm struggling with this one. If I look at something like Getjar.com there's a lack of clear layout, that's more to design than anything else. My next problem is finding what I want and for my device... urgh this is getting messy. Give me the App Store for J2ME PLEASE!

More to the point, are there actually any really good I-can't-live-without-this apps in J2ME for mobile devices?

Sounds like I'm talking myself out of this one.

On the opposite side of the coin: first of all buy either an iPhone or iPod Touch (which is going to cost me anything from £165 - £350 depending on what I get), learn Objective C, get a Mac so I can get the SDK (call that another £800), the economics are starting to work against me. So for my £1100 I need to make sure that I'm going to get enough downloads and marketing clout so the downloads happen.

Perhaps I should just build a good J2ME App Store.