Java is a programming language. It was created at Sun Microsystems. It was initially released in 1995.
Java is similar to C and C++. So, if you have any experience with C or C++, you will find Java easy to learn. However, Java is different in many significant ways.
According to Oracle (which acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010), Java now runs on more than 3 billion devices. Java powers millions of applications across multiple platforms.
Some of the types of applications that run on Java are as follows:
Java provides GUI development through various frameworks such as Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), Swing and JavaFX.
Applications for Android, one of the most popular mobile operating system, are usually written in Java using the Android Software Development Kit (SDK).
Several embedded devices, such as SIM cards, blue-ray disk players, utility meters and televisions, use embedded Java technologies. According to Oracle, more than 125 million TV devices are powered by Java.
Java supports web applications through J2EE, which includes servlets, Java Server Pages (JSP), and Java Persistence API (JPA).
[THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN SKIPPED] The highly secured environment offered by Java has allowed thousands of applications ranging from health, social security, education and insurance based web applications to be written in Java.
Large amounts of data, known as Big Data, can be efficiently processed with frameworks such as Hadoop. Such environments make Java a popular choice for many applications involving scientific calculations and mathematical operations.