Why Apple will probably release Java 1.6 sooner rather than later November 1, 2007
Posted by Wille in Java, Technology.trackback
A lot of people, myself included have been somewhat annoyed with Apple’s lack of a roadmap for Java. Some people have speculated in Apple completely abandoning Java, others have pointed at past historic evidence of new Java releases following shortly after Mac OS X releases.
Personally, I wouldn’t deduce much out of any of these theories, but there are other, better signs that Apple are probably as dependent on an upgrade path for Java as all the Mac using Java developers howling in anger: Apple themselves are a big user of Java internally.
Apple’s WebObjects Java Web Framework is the central technology for both Apples .Mac service, the Apple Store, and perhaps most importantly, the back end of the iTunes music store.
There is good, very public evidence that Apple are in no way abandoning WebObjects, looking at this very public release history of WebObjects shows that Apple released a new version of WebObjects in tandem with Leopard, and this release happens to be the most significant update to WebObjects in 2-3 years judging by the feature list.
Given the significance of the latest update, and the technology’s central standing in Apple’s services- and serverside strategy, it would seem highly unlikely that Apple would just abandon Java. What is more likely is that some of the core Java guys at Apple have been somewhat tied up in the WebObjects release rather than JDK work, which may have delayed the timeline for Java 1.6.
Obviously this doesn’t take away the critique of Apple’s lack of a timeline or roadmap for Java, which has created a lot of uncertainty and stress in the Java community , but it may at least provide some comfort.
Java is a critical technology for corporate America. Whether it’s Web Objects or Apache or many of Google’s services. Java is everywhere and Apple will be supporting it. It’s a matter of when not if. Apple had a beta of Java 6 that it pulled from the developer sites just prior to releasing Leopard. Pretty likely that Java 6 for Macintosh is around the corner.