The agreement between IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) to work together on an open-source Java implementation could knock the wind out of Android, industry experts are warning. Oracle's attacks on Android (including a pending lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) over the Java components in Android) could have a major impact on how the mobile environment evolves.

The IBM-Oracle deal moves IBM programmers who had been working on a Java implementation that facilitated Android (the Apache Software Foundation's Project Harmony) to Oracle's own Java initiative, called the OpenJDK project, writes InfoWorld's Josh Fruhlinger. Without IBM's support, it is uncertain that the Harmony project can thrive. "[T]he pact with IBM has the potential to seriously undermine the Android platform, no matter how the courtroom struggle turns out," he writes.

IBM's motivation for making the switch could be twofold. IBM has a lot at stake in Java, and it may have just been eager to see new implementations delivered in a timely manner, writes Gavin Clarke at The Register. "The thing that seems to have brought IBM into Oracle's camp was a need to have Java progress," Clarke writes. "It seems IBM blinked." What's more, once Oracle bought Sun, IBM no longer had to battle Sun to lead Java initiatives.

In the meantime, Android is still looking quite popular and appears to be on an upswing, reports eWeek's Don Reisinger, who presents 10 reasons to believe the operating system's prospects are good. Among other things, new versions of the OS keep coming out, and each one has looked better than the previous, adding features that are better tuned to enterprise use, Reisinger writes. 

For more:
- see Josh Fruhlinger's post at InfoWorld
- see Gavin Clarke's post at The Register
- see Don Reisinger's article at eWeek

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