• Mobile App Design
• Web Design

Best J2ME Tools for Mobile App Development or 6 Sure Fire J2ME Tools for your Mobile App Development

Today, mobile technologies and platforms like Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and more are heating up the mobile app development. While technology giants like Google and Apple are diving more deeply into the mobile app development, Sun Microsystem is also not behind in the race!

J2ME: a popular venture of Sun in the mobile development market

Sun has also recognized that “one size doesn’t fit all” and thus, introduced J2ME (Java 2 Platform Micro Edition) for small devices and to standardize the use of Java technology in wireless mobile devices. Today, J2ME is quite popular when it comes to mobile app development. There are many popular companies or brands like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry, Motorola etc. use J2ME.

What makes J2Me popular?

One of the major reasons why J2ME is popular for mobile application development is its cross-platform compatibility. It is also more secure and scalable than any other mobile application development platform available in the market. It also enables the mobile users to leverage from seamless user interfaces, out-of-the-box navigation and enhanced networking abilities.

Power of J2ME and its Development Tools:

Of course, Java mobile development is rapidly becoming popular among the businesses and developers across the globe due to the benefits offered by it. However, another thing that is making J2ME more decent for the mobile app development is a huge number of good development tools. When it comes to J2ME mobile app development, developers have plenty of options that can help developers more productive. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular J2ME tools that developers can use for mobile app development.

JBuilder: Borland JBuilder is one of the well-known IDE that is available in 3 different versions, such as Personal, Standard and Enterprise. One of the major features of JBuilder is that no matter what kind of version you’re using, you can run it on any platform including Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X.

However, to start developing J2ME mobile apps, it is important to install additional plug-in called MobileSet. While JBuilder personal edition is available for free, the remaining two versions are premium and costs 99 and 999 respectively.

NetBeans IDE: NetBeans is a well-known and extensively used Java IDE that enables the developers to build robust mobile applications as well as desktop and web applications on the go. This amazing tool brings a huge set of tools for PHP and C/C++ developers. Its open source nature and a huge developer community makes this tool perfect for the mobile application development.

It also brings out-of-the-box support for all the latest Java technologies, including JDK 8 previews, JDK 7, Java EE 7 and so on. It brings amazing features for the developers, including smart and fast coding, ease of project management, rapid UI development, error free code and more.

IntelliJ IDEA: Intellij IDEA doesn’t require any introduction! It is one of the most intelligent Java IDEs that brings comprehensive support for web, enterprise and mobile frameworks. It is available in two different versions, Ultimate edition and Community edition. When it comes to mobile app development, Intellij is quite easy to use. It brings ample support for Android, including refactoring and handy UI designer.

However, if you wish to leverage from AIR Mobile with support for Android and IOS devices, than you have to opt for the Ultimate edition. Smart code completion, advanced refactoring, code analysis and so on are a few of the major features you can leverage from it.

EclipseME: It is an Eclipse plug-in that helps developers build J2ME MIDlets. EclipseME provides the grunt work of connecting wireless toolkits to the Eclipse development environment, which at the end allows developers to concentrate more on developing apps rather than worrying about the special needs & deeds of the J2ME development.

It greatly simplifies the J2ME development with a whole host of features including wireless toolkit preferences, ease of creating new Midlet, Java Application Descriptor editor, Eclipse launch support and more.

Sun J2ME Wireless Toolkit: As its name suggests, it is nothing but a J2ME Java development kit (JDK) that help developers to leverage from emulation environment, tools, documentation and examples required to build MIDP apps. The Sun J2ME Wireless toolkit is not a complete IDE for developing mobile apps as it doesn’t have editing or debugging features.

However, the developers can leverage from KToolBar for a minimal development environment with a GUI to compile, package and execute the MIDP apps. The developers won’t have to pay a single penny to use this tool. The only thing that makes this tool less useful for the experienced developers or large-scale applications is lack of productive development environment.

Sun ONE Studio: Sun ONE studio is one of the core capabilities of Java, which uses NetBeans to integrate 3rd party or external modules within the IDE. This tool also comes in different variations like Mobile, Community and Enterprise for Java. While Mobile and Community editions are free of cost, Enterprise edition requires you to pay 995. However, you can also opt for a free trial for 60-days.

Modular design is one of the core features and strengths of Sun ONE studio. Moreover, it is quite easy for the third parties to provide components and integrated with it. No matter what is the complexity of your project, you can rely on this tool for sure!

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About the Author:

Hi, I am Nitin Soni. I work as a web developer with Cygnet Infotech, an offshore software development company. For any query or help regarding software or web development, mail me on [email protected], if possible. And, I’d love to connect with you on Twitter @MkNitin.