Sun dreams the impossible Java on Jesus Phone dream
24 hours not enough to read a EULA
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Yes, Sun has committed itself to putting Java on the iPhone. But this is a bit like Miss Havisham committing herself to a life of marital bliss.
As several astute Reg readers have pointed out, Apple's end user licensing agreement for the new iPhone SDK includes its very own anti-Java clause. Sun can put a free Java Virtual Machine on the Jesus Phone, but this JVM won't be allowed to actually run Java code.
"An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise," reads the Apple EULA. "No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."
The day after Apple unveiled its new SDK, Sun vice president of Java marketing Eric Klein told us that the company had "spent the last 24 hours furiously looking through what information was made publicly available" by Steve Jobs and company. "We feel comfortable enough at this point on the information we have," he said, "to commit the engineering resources to bring the JVM over to the iPhone and the iTouch as fast as our schedules and Apple's release schedule will allow."
Assuming that Klein was telling the truth - that Sun did indeed spend those 24 hours "furiously" looking over Apple's materials - there are only two possible explanations for the company's ill-advised public statement. One: Sun doesn't know how to read. Or two: Eric Klein believes his company has the power to shame Steve Jobs into rewriting his EULA.
We're opting for the first possibility. It's the least ridiculous of the two.
Over the weekend, when we asked Sun about the clause in question, the company tossed us an email response from Klein, but he wouldn't actually talk to us on the phone. His carefully-worded statement said this:
After Sun announced our intent to create a JVM for iPhone and iTouch last Friday, there were questions raised in some blogs & forum posts about whether Apple's iPhone license agreement allows us to deploy the JVM.
Our announcement was based on our excitement to build a JVM for the iPhone and the iTouch, as well as our assessment of Apple's publicly available information on the SDK and related business terms. If there are clauses in the iPhone beta SDK license agreement that potentially limit third party application distribution, then these are items that we want to have a positive discussion with Apple about.
Sun and Apple have an ongoing relationship around Java SE on Mac OS X and we look forward to further discussions with Apple about a JVM for iPhone and iTouch. Sun definitely plans to deliver a JVM for iPhone and iTouch if at all possible!
Of course, it's not possible. At least not for the foreseeable future. Sun may be silly enough to make idle claims about the iPhone SDK. But Apple is not. ®
COMMENTS
@ Mr B
Sorry, I don't understand your post. As it was @ me thought I should ask for clarification, I can't tell if you're agreeing with me or no.....
what kind of app CAN you write
The number of restrictions that come with this SDK are just ridiculous.
You cant port a browser: no interpreted language (javascript) and no plugins allowed.
You cant even port an instant messenger app that would be worth using as your not allowed to have programs run in the background.
Same goes for pretty much any kind of voip application that could receive incoming calls, as you wouldn't want to have to leave that running in the foreground all the time.
so wtf ARE you allowed to write thats worth having on a phone ?
RE: Dear Colin
Actually, it's a bit more like some uninvited, ugly, fat, domintarix announcing to the world in general she's gonna make beautiful music with you and just expecting you to throw back the covers and shout "Come get some!" Steve Jobs strikes me as much too much of a sadist to want to have any partner inviting themselves to take control of his platform party, so I think Sun will probably have to make another embarrassing volte face.
Now, if only Eric Klein had borrowed Scott McNealy's penguin suit for this event we could have stretched this to some equally unappealling furry scenarios.....
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