J2ME, a leading platform in the mobile application market, provides more than 150 million cell phone users a powerful new level of connectivity. Currently, there are 200 J2ME-enabled handset models available from 70 manufacturers, and users perform more than 10 million downloads every month. It is projected that J2ME-enabled handsets will completely dominate the market by 2006, with more than 1 billion in use worldwide.

However, a J2ME-enabled device has its limitations, namely available memory and processor power. An application must combine local and remote data processing to deliver meaningful results in a timely manner. The solution is a connected MIDlet, which handles the collection and display of data locally, but delegates any processor-intensive tasks to a remote server. These small footprint, distributed applications will require programmers to consider a new set of requirements and challenges, and we can show you how.

This session will introduce you to the areas of J2ME with which you need to be familiar in order to build and distribute a connected MIDlet: MIDP, I/O, establishing a network connection, exception handling, and OTA provisioning. We will also look at some tools you can use as a developer to save yourself programming time and headaches, including Sun's Wireless Toolkit and device emulators.