Nokia and J2ME - bedpartners as usual - are moving forward together with the release of JSR 248 (and 249, but that’s another enterprise-level story).

What is in JSR 248?  In short, all the stuff we’ve wanted for a long time:

Mobile 3D Graphics API [JSR 184]
Mobile Media API [JSR 135]
BlueTooth API [JSR 82]
SIP [JSR 180]
Payment API [JSR 229]
Content Handlers [JSR 211]
Web Services [JSR 172]
Security and Trust Services API [JSR 177]
Location API for J2ME [JSR 179]

With all these amazing APIs, producing compliant handsets must be a real challenge for manufacturers.  But combining all of these services under one compliance spec is absolutely necessary if J2ME is going to remain a contender.

I’ve been taking a look at the Web Services API here.  JAX and SOAP bindings on
the handset.  Brilliant.

Sick of using the carriers (PSMS, etc.) to do your billing?  Here comes the payment API.  Now you can make
that social networking app, mobile MMORPG or whatever micro-payment app you’re dreaming of and charge people intuitively and independently .

I’ve been keeping track of these JSR’s but haven’t let myself get too excited until finding out they’ve been bundled under one spec.  If the implantations are consistent (fingers and toes crossed on that one), and support becomes widespread, J2ME developers can finally get serious.