1. Java SE 8
Java 8 is expected in September 2013 and will include at a minimum the features that were planned for Java 7 but later deferred.
- Language-level support for lambda expressions (officially, lambda expressions; unofficially, closures) under Project Lambda.There was an ongoing debate in the Java community on whether to add support for lambda expressions. Sun later declared that lambda expressions would be included in Java and asked for community input to refine the feature.
- Parts of project Coin that are not included in Java 7
- JSR 310: Date and Time API
- Tight integration with JavaFX
2. Powerful JVM languages
Year 2012 was the start of JVM languages where Scala picked up pretty well. There are positive development on Akka, Play 2.0, Groovy, Closure, JRuby and Kotlin. It all depends on the developers and how the consolidation and adoption of these languages will look like in 2013.
3. Integration of JavaScript in Java language
OpenJDK will be integrating JavaScript in Java SDK and will make it part of Java 8. There are chances that Node.js will get entry into this development.
4. Improved performance with GPU
OpenJDK has initiative/project (Sumatra) which tries to improve the performance by utilizing GPU.
5. Java in the cloud
With the advent of frameworks like IaaS and PaaS, there is possibility of introducing jcloud in Java SE8. There might be more 3rd party cloud providers in supporting the java in the cloud.
