Discussion of Activity 10.7

How many devices worldwide use Java technology?

There is no clear answer to this question. We found, for example, this useful web page

http://www.java.com/en/about/

but you may have found other useful sources.

When we accessed the website above in August 2010, we found that Java powers more than 6.5 billion devices:

• over 850 million PCs
• 2.1 billion mobile phones and other handheld devices (source: Ovum)
• 3.5 billion smart cards
• plus set-top boxes, printers, web cams, games, car navigation systems, lottery terminals, medical devices, parking payment stations and more.

This contrasts with figures reported at the same website five years ago of just over 2.5 billion devices. In the last five years, according to this source, the number of PCs has increased only slightly (by about 10%) while the numbers of mobile phones and smart cards using Java technology have trebled.