I chose Java for a major (non-android) project last year (other potential choices were Ruby, C++ and Scala). It's a great middle ground. Statically typed, fast and well known with very good tooling. I've ended up loving it because it works well for what it is and is super practical, not because it's a beautiful, perfect language.

What I really dislike on Java is that you have to repeat yourself, over and over and over.

For example, you have to write all these getters and setters ad nauseam, even if all they do is just setting the damn variable. Or the anonymous classes, the syntax is horrible.

Now I understand that the object model is simple and easy to understand, but still, I prefer Scala more. It works with java, but it's many times easier to actually use.

Unless I am coding for a "picky customer" I use what I refer to as Java Lite: public instance variables, shallow package hierarchy, etc. I have been using Java since the beginning and have written several books on Java so (at least for my own stuff) I feel comfortable breaking the rules.

I also format code to match a small but wide monitor (MacBook Air 13) and although a lot of people would understandably not like the longer line formatting using up to 100 columns, my code density is good - a typical method easily fits on my display. I also favor short classes.

Java is on a rocket due to Android. Now that the Oracle threat has receded, that trend could accelerate.

This has to be the explanation.

You can also hedge your bets with Java a bit, because unlike Obj-C it's important outside mobile apps.

I can second it. Some people I know, never used Java before in their life and started now to code apps for Android.

I learned Java specifically for Android, but I really like it for all around development. C# is probably better, but it owes a lot of its success to Java IMO.

It's generally true that the popular language is never the cool language. Except maybe C.

Objective C, Python and Ruby are very popular and cool ;-)

I wonder how much of this popularity is attributable to the success of Minecraft/Notch.

While Minecraft is really a very nice idea it let me feel the disadvantages of Garbage Collection. On three different machines with three different JREs I had to tweak the start-up of the JVM for Minecraft and still it comes to lags and sometimes it just stops.