Best Portal to buy and sell J2ME apps [closed]

Question

There are so many app stores for any kind of platform out there, but when I try to find a good store to buy and sell j2me apps, I find some, but no really big one or defacto standard like I was used to have for the palm os (sites like palmgear sell nearly every program ever made for the palm and not only a subset).

Is there a store which I havn't found yet? Or is the j2me market dead?

Och

why don't you add links to the appstores you already know about so we only post relevant answers? – Dose

You are right - that would be fair. But to be honest, I don't know of any java appstore. I only know palmgear.com (for my palm centro) and handango.com (but afaik, they have mainly apps for the native phone OS and not the jvm - maybe I'm wrong). – Och

I'm just trying to figure out if handango only support native apps or j2me too. At least it seems that there is no search for j2me apps... – Och

Answer 1

There is no standard app store for j2me apps, and nither didexist for any other platform until Apple had invented the iPhone one. Since the Apple app sotre, almost all vendors created one, such as OVI for Nokia, AppWorld for BlackBrry and the Windows Mobile Marketplace. Also Sun came up with the Java Store, but it aimed only at desktop apps at the moment.

Since there was a clear void, many companies have created stores for mobile apps, most of theme support non-j2me apps (Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.). The two largest ones are Handango and GetJar. Of the new stores, OVI and AppWorld sell j2me apps. Other stores such as PocketGear and MobiHand sell BlackBerry apps as well, but not pure j2me ones.

Given that, it seems that most the applications in the j2me are sold via the operators' portals or stores (like AT&T Media Mall) or pre-installed on the devices themselves. The outcome of this is that it relatively hard to sell j2me app, comparing to the smartphone arena (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.)

Dilative

Hi! I've chosen this answer because it reflects the spirit of my question best. It shows that it is indeed true that there never was a standard app store and also isn't one. Since all app stores focus on the devices and hence native apps, it seems to be unlikely that j2me will make a breakthrough. I guess, as a developer I have either to chose one platform or extend my skills to several platforms. – Och

Answer 2

GetJar is pretty much the only cross-platforms J2ME appstore I would be comfortable in relying on as a developer.

Then, I would directly go to Mobile Network Operators and Handset Manufacturers appstores.

Dose

GetJar already sounds very technical. And what I've seen from the first look, it doesn't support commercial apps, does it? it it is basically something for people who know what they are looking for (jars) and not the normal phone user :-( – Och

From what I gather, GetJar has been advertised on TV and allows paid apps. If it doesn't convince you, feel free to contact them and tell them why. – Dose

Ah! I now digged deeper into the GetJar and found lots of developer infos. Regarding paid apps they state "Soon, GetJar will offer the missing ingredient in the mobile app ecosystem: a global payments system that works." But their visions seems to be the best at the moment. :-) – Och

Answer 3

Nokia's Ovi store? Seems like the only one that's really actively promoted and fairly large.

http://www.ovi.com/services/

Eminence

Ovi seems to be well designed, but seems also only to be for Nokia phones... – Och

@Ralf: Ovi is a sister concern of Nokia, so its logical for them to support Nokia only :). Though, the J2ME apps can run on any device with required support. – Rimarimas

Answer 4

How about Handango?

Please look at Handango web page for Java ME IM+ for Skype app as sample.

Lucilius

Answer 5

Here is one link that seems to have good collection of Mobile Apps for J2ME devices not mentioned in any of the previous posts.

Rimarimas