So when do Sun intend to deliver a usable and up-to-date Java Media Framework (JMF) for Standard Edition?

The reason Java has been left behind on the desktop and for consumer applications is the terrible support for cross-platform multimedia support.

If they want to promote consumer-friendly Java they need to focus on what is driving consumer applications today: multimedia rich, 2-way audio and video, streaming protocols, support for Linux V4L2 as well as Windows & Mac OS X device support.

I wouldn't describe Java SE as 'consumer-friendly' whilst JMF remains an optional extra (rather than part of the core SE installed in every device), and a patchy and generally poor implementation that can drive developers to other languages and platforms,

Not only an option extra, but one that has been deprecated for ~several~ years now and last I tried it, flat out didn't work.

Our application is depending on Quicktime Java which - while also deprecated and probably won't function when Quicktime 8 comes out - has no alternative whatsoever.

Come QT8, if it breaks we'll probably have to write our own decoder from scratch or - better yet - dump Java for Macromedia.