Yep, you can definitely construct Objective-C code that would be way, way, way slower than equivalent Java code. A trivial example would be something like for(int i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++) [obj self];. I imagine any decent Java JIT will be able to detect that this loop does nothing and eliminate it entirely.

However, my point is that not only can you write faster Objective-C code, but that most normal Objective-C code will be faster, because most normal Objective-C code isn't that message heavy. So it's not just that it can be faster, but that it usually will be. Typically. Depending on what you're doing.