Sun has licensed and promoted mobile Java freely for mobile handsets with an eye to selling more enterprise Java servers to mobile operators. But it hasn't played a strong role in guiding the mobile technology, instead allowing software and hardware vendors and carriers to develop a variety of Java virtual machines (JVMs). That has led to a plethora of Java-enabled phones and mobile Java applications, but also complaints about fragmentation that makes life harder for developers.

Oracle has more important issues to deal with in the short term, such as integrating Sun and possibly jettisoning much of its hardware business, but observers disagree on whether it will take advantage of mobile Java later on.

"I suspect that J2ME is not going to be what Oracle is going to want to focus on," said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates, adding that it wasn't a major focus for Sun, either.