Many smartphones in the market dont run on android or ios. They run on java j2me. And their lowcost compared to android phones of same functionalities means theyre in use by many people more ppl thn android and more prohibitive ios phones.

You're wrong

asalimpo: Many smartphones in the market dont run on android or ios. They run on java j2me. And their lowcost compared to android phones of same functionalities means theyre in use by many people more ppl thn android and more prohibitive ios phones.

1. What market are you specifically talking about? Nigeria? Africa? The World?
2. Are u trying to say that many featured phones run on Java/J2ME and that many users in the African market use featured phones, because they are cheaper than smartphones?

toshodei:

1. What market are you specifically talking about? Nigeria? Africa? The World?
2. Are u trying to say that many featured phones run on Java/J2ME and that many users in the African market use featured phones, because they are cheaper than smartphones?

market - nigeria.
Most feature phones run java - yes.
Cheaper thn comparative smartphones - yes.
The nokia asha brand is still selling in d market and it was a huge hit,meang they's a sizable java me unserved segment being ignored. The blackberry < q,z series all run java. And all those bold,curve,etc phones are still selling. Sad,tht oracle has no plans for upgrading java me beyond java 1.3! So no books on it (recently) but there are millions of java phones around. Android phones are basically pc-spec ranges hence their price tag is high. If this low end phones were servced, the market cud b milked for some more years bf it dries up (to d onslaught of android). Forget ios, its too expensive to become ubiquitious and generate a sizable market. In d tablet arena, i bet bb will win. Its playbook is economical <$200 and its a powerful brand making a come back.

asalimpo:
market - nigeria.
Most feature phones run java - yes.
Cheaper thn comparative smartphones - yes.
The nokia asha brand is still selling in d market and it was a huge hit,meang they's a sizable java me unserved segment being ignored. The blackberry < q,z series all run java. And all those bold,curve,etc phones are still selling. Sad,tht oracle has no plans for upgrading java me beyond java 1.3! So no books on it (recently) but there are millions of java phones around. Android phones are basically pc-spec ranges hence their price tag is high. If this low end phones were servced, the market cud b milked for some more years bf it dries up (to d onslaught of android). Forget ios, its too expensive to become ubiquitious and generate a sizable market. In d tablet arena, i bet bb will win. Its playbook is economical <$200 and its a powerful brand making a come back.

Yes, you are pretty right, but as smartphones get cheaper do u think people with feature phones will switch? Also are u saying that we should focus on building J2ME Apps instead of Android & iOS?

You know since BB, Nokia (& other feature phones) & Android all run on Java, the trick is to build 1 app (either BB, J2ME or Android) and then convert it to everything else.

But also, don't lose foresight and check this link ~> http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/30/the-one-horse-race-android-represented-85-of-the-300m-smartphones-shipped-in-q2/

toshodei:

Yes, you are pretty right, but as smartphones get cheaper do u think people with feature phones will switch? Also are u saying that we should focus on building J2ME Apps instead of Android & iOS?

bottom line j2me is dead. There's no resurgence for it. But the nokia asha phones ppl bought two years ago and this year will still b in use for the next 3 years. The blackberries that are not q10,q this or that or Z<choose a random number less than 11 > will still b around for about 5 years. The feature phones tht hav a jvm on them will b supplanted with these hand me downs so in one or d other j2me phones will have a life span of say 5 years. Wen som1 wants to drop his asha phone for a an android he'll hand it to his househelp , preteen and those one's will need apps.
So there's a huge market,running in millions. This is cash on d table.

Focus on j2me over android? No, do all of them.
Will ppl switch ? Yes but some will maintain 2 or more phones .
Ppl wont throw away workg phones.
Ppl still use windows xp. Though its dying out. Most sotware are available for xp and above . Xp isnt completely ignored but its on its way out. Thts d logic.

Yeah I see what you are saying. Personally I think that the main problem is the app. Like a killer app will make users move from 1 platform to another. For instance, think of NL (NairaLand). NL is a semi-killer app. If we can have a killer app that will make the internet useful 2 Nigerians or Africans, then everybody will shift regardless of what phone they are using. Thats why I think 2go is better than Facebook in the Nigerian Market. Like u said, 2go targets feature phones as well.