It's true that Sun was pissed, and maybe a bit surprised about how different Dalvik was but it is misleading to say it was a total surprise.

Google had been putting a lot of effort into the Apache Harmony class libraries, and most people were expecting them to either use one of the conventional open source JVM implementations, or perhaps one of their own.

The approach Dalvik took was a big surprise, but no one was surprised that they weren't using JavaME.

The point remains that Java is more relevant today because of Android. In fact, considering the competitive panorama and how the mobile market is growing, I'd assume Android is the most important thing that prevents Java from sliding into irrelevance.

Android keeps the Java language relevant in mobile space but Java is far from irrelevant in other types of development such as on the server side or in the enterprise space.

Java, the language, is the COBOL of the 21st century. While the JVM is relevant and will likely remain so, I cannot predict Java language adoption will increase.

I don't think relevance can pay Larry's bills. The Java ecosystem may be bigger, but Oracle's licensing revenue is probably smaller; I don't see any halo effect or trickle-down or whatever at work here.

I don't have numbers but, speaking for myself, Android's use of Java gives me more incentive to keep my Java skills up to snuff and to consider using it for non-Android projects.

Its half right.. the reason Sun was pissed between Schwartz's blog post and some time later was that there was some closed door discussions for Sun to become a partner in completing Android...

It was not about propping up JavaME as Android OS was similar to SajE in approach as far as putting java at the OS level...and that was vastly different than what JavaME was doing..