I am new to programming in java so please forgive me if my question
sounds elementary...

I know another programmer that made an application that only runs on
phones that suppor MIDP 2, but according to the link below every
phone can support MIDP 1 and only some (maybe 40% can support MIDP 2)
http://www.jbenchmark.com/index.html?F=2

What are the beneifits to programming for MIDP 2 and not MIDP 1.
Why would you choose to do this?