With Apple very quietly letting developers know that Java on Mac OS X is deprecated (you had to find it in the Release Notes for the latest Java Update), it's quickly time to think about what this means to Mac Java developers.

Why did Apple do this?

Seeing that they're not hurting for money at all (see Apple makes more than $1.6M revenue per employee), there are two possible answers here:

1. Oracle, the new owner of Java, is forcing Apple's hand, just like they're going after Google for their Java implementation.
2. This is Apple's back-handed way of keeping Java apps out of the newly announced Mac App Store.

I don't have any contacts inside Apple, my guess is #2, this is Apple's way of keeping Java applications out of the Mac App Store, which was also announced yesterday. I don't believe there's any coincidence at all that (a) the "Java Deprecation" announcement was made in the Java update release notes at the same time (b) a similar statement was placed in the Mac Developer Program License Agreement.

I sincerely hope they don't veto Flash AND Java...