MIDP and Bluetooth as Java Card substitute

Question

Hi,
I'm a Java developer, but not a Java Card developer, so I'm curious about the opinions of Java Card developers. It seems to me that IR and Bluetooth enabled J2ME/MIDP devices could be used in many situations where Java Cards are currently used. Depending on the adoption rates of
a) Bluetooth enabled computers, devices, access points, etc... and
b) cell phones with both Bluetooth and J2ME
It may soon (a year or two) become cheaper and/or more convenient to issue users without a J2ME Bluetooth phone, such a device, than to issue all users Java Cards.
So, entrenched coders
1) Is this migration sane?
2) Is anybody doing it, now?
3) How hard/trivial is porting the applications?
Thanks,
Curt

Answer 1

I'm aware of the JSR, but what is the security element ?On Sun Tech Days I was told it should be a Java Card. ;-))
The main advantage of a smartcard is that it provides a trustworthy and tamper-resistant environment.
Please have a look at
http://www.simalliance.org/portal_upload/SIMalliance_comm.PDF
I quote from the SIM Alliance site:
"Thanks to a defined standard, easy downloading and powerful operating systems displaying high quality graphics, J2ME phones are making their mark. This leads to the question with such success and a memory capacity up to 1000 times the (U)SIM, will this relegate the Smart Card to a second class citizen?
While Smart Card cannot compete with a Java handset for the sexy aspects of applications such as graphics, the core attributes of a Smart Card offer a number of significant benefits to application delivery, execution and management. All of these features require privacy management, security, portability and one-to-one personalization.
Wireless applications must be secure and robust. However, it is feared that operators' revenue streams and secure pipeline will be threatened by the free delivery of applications mimicking the loss-making Internet portal model.
This is where the Smart Card, (UICC, (U)SIM, and equivalent), will play an essential role in providing security, building trust and protecting revenues for mobile businesses.
The card will become an integral part of the architecture for distributed applications running at the same time on Server, Handset and Smart Card to leverage the respective benefits of each part of the infrastructure.
By looking at the strong points of each of the Java standards, Java Card and J2ME are not competing technologies but instead can be used in tandem to create an "open" and "secure" infrastructure that operators and content providers need in order to increase their ARPU and diminish costs. At present this infrastructure does not exist but leading operators, handset manufacturers, content providers and (U)SIM suppliers are working to make it a reality."