Orange Code Camp

Orange hosted a Code Camp about two weeks ago in France, and it was a great opportunity to meet with application developers, and keep updated on their experience and issues they are facing.

I was moderating a Birds of a Feather session on 3D in Java, and had a great panel of experts from Apoje, In-Fusio, as well as Nokia. 3D is happening right now, with a bunch of devices reaching the market before the end of this year. These devices will support the standard 3D API: JSR 184. Here is a short list just to name a few: Siemens CX66, Sony Ericsson K700, Siemens CX70, Motorola e680, Nokia 6630, Siemens SK65, Sony Ericsson S700i, Sony Ericsson Z500.

For application developers, 3D will mean acquiring new skills or partnering with graphic designers, so this market is expected to follow somehow the traditional game industry, and I don't think individual developers will be willing to take the additional risks...
But anyway, if you are interested about these opportunities, check this article Sun has just published: Getting Started With the Mobile 3D Graphics API for J2ME.

In addition to that, what I think to be very exciting are the upcoming hardware solutions. Heard about ATI, nVIDIA and NeoMagic? Well, they have all announced upcoming products for cell phones, so yes, you will be able to play Tomb Raider truly, fully anywhere! Such devices are expected to reach the market next year. Now the question is: would you spend $10 or so to get Tomb Raider on your phone?

But going back to the Code Camp, if you are a developer and you are based in the US, stay tuned because you may hear about something cool soon.

Presentations at the last Code Camp are available online on the Orange Partner web site (you do need to register though).

Romain