Why does Android use Java?

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OK, this should really be asked to someone from Google, but I just want other opinions.

Even though Android supports Native code applications, the main development tool is still Java. But why? I mean, isn't it too slow to interpret code on a mobile device? When introducing Froyo, Google said that new JIT compiler can achieve 2-5 times faster applications. This means, that using Java over native code is 2-x times slower.

Yes, I know that using managed code applications is safer in terms of system stability, since virtual machines have better control over program execution, but still, this performance drop is huge, and I don't see any point why to use it.

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