Originally posted by Coco Lee:
So does this mean the device manufactures have a choice of implementing these "optional" packages or not?
Yes. They can also choose to implement proprietary APIs. MIDP specifies the minimum set of APIs everybody has to implement.
I know it sounds like a lot of fragmentation. But that is what JSR 185 is for: It specifies a set of optional packages everyone has to implement in order to carry a certain logo.