Java me – J2ME app and browser on mobile phone

Recently, I started to develop J2ME app prototype I noticed how difficult it is to develop a nice user interface Consider developing an application in J2ME for booking flights interacting with web service

A flight booking website is easy to develop with a beautiful UI and can be accessed through the browser on the mobile phone I know not all phones have browsers, but all new and upcoming phones have browsers and large screens

It is a good idea to develop such an application in J2ME. Does it need to talk to the web service to make it work? Or J2ME only for stand-alone applications?

Solution

Advantages of J2ME:

>You can access phone resources such as file system, phone book and GPS The last one is very important in map applications. > You can build richer user interfaces As you said, it may be difficult, but there are many GUI libraries that can help you On the contrary, the UI of mobile browsers (you can't rely on CSS and JavaScript to work) will be poor. > The flexibility of communication logic is higher You can encrypt / decrypt data, compress data, and use soap web services Using a browser, your best choice is to develop rest services

Disadvantages of J2ME:

>MIDlet needs to be signed There are some costs. In some cases, even signed applications will not work properly on specific phones. > Developing midlets to run on all types of phones is a nightmare Instead, well-designed mobile web applications will display correctly on all recent phones. > You need a channel to distribute your applications People need to download it and get the bandwidth they need You need to care about angry customers with application problems Websites are easier. > J2ME applications are inevitably compared with native applications (iPhone, windows, mobile, Symbian) Compared with these, they are very poor, and many people will find it unreasonable to pay for them or even use them

My conclusion is: Nowadays, real smart phones are becoming more and more popular and have won a growing market share In this case, the advantages of J2ME can not really overcome its limitations The only exception I can think of is whether a GPS application must be developed For all other cases, mobile websites are a better idea