.NET, Adobe AIR (Flex, action script), C++ and C are already supported as development platforms for Intel’s AppUp and we’ve already seen people porting their existing air apps over. I’m sure that we’re going to see similar activity, along with fresh development work following the new announcement that a Java SDK has now been added to AppUp. That should please the 9 million Java developers! [ref]

Remember, AppUp is the application ecosystem (develop, monetize, storefront) for Intel netbooks and future MeeGo products on the Intel platforms so in terms of potential it’s building quickly. It’s also key in a significant, possibly critical, part of Intel’s strategy to move into handheld devices, cars and TVs along with MeeGo. It’s no surprise that a lot of work is going into it.

From the announcement:

Continuing the port of choice approach for AppUp, the AppUp developer program has now added a Java SDK, extending the value of the program to millions of Java developers. With the addition of this SDK the program now supports Java, .NET, Adobe AIR, C++ & C development environments. Java developers can download the SDK and start submitting applications to AppUp today. Adding Java as development language for AppUp provides more choice for developers and allows for the benefits of Java to be used to get apps distributed and monetized to consumers.

So are there any developers feeling left out now?

More importantly, are there any developers itching to get involved when Android, Chrome, Symbian and iOS offer a rather significant advantage in terms of installed user base and monetization opportunities?

I spoke to Java consultant Niall Lynch [Agent: Version1] about the opportunity…

This is good news, and will leverage the skills of the large Java developer community who would be keen to develop on any new platform available. It opens up huge opportunities for developers to consider new types of devices when developing applications. Obviously Android application developers should jump at this development. It’s also good news to see that companies as large as Intel believe in Java as there appears to be a lack of direction from various quarters about the future of Java.

Android devs, is there an easy porting opportunity here?

Most, if not all of you reading this will have heard of the Firefox browser and many of you will have tried Firefox 3.0 beta. I held back from using it for a long time because it was beta software but the latest release candidate seems stable and has me converted on all platforms now. Firefox 3.0 is fast. Firefox 3.0 is memory efficient. Firefox 3.0 has great features and overall its a clear winner on UMPC and netbook platforms, especially when using online applications.

Like Safari, it appears from my test results that Firefox 3.0 can process java-heavy pages on a Ghz-class UMPC faster than the data arrives over my 6mbps Internet connection which means that for rich Internet applications, the bottleneck is at the remote server and there’s very little else you can do to speed up the experience. Apparently, java processing in FF3 is many many times faster than in version 2 so this explains the big improvement with online applications. Not only is the speed improved but there are some great features that will appeal to UMPC users too. But first, here’s some test results. I took 5 devices and ran speed tests on 3 browsers [*1] using reader.google.com as the target page. It’s a java-heavy page and there’s no flash or major numbers of images to process but its typically my slowest-loading browser application. It represents a typical online application and for web-workers, its a good, tough benchmark.

More info after the jump…

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