We tried implementing our own setFocus(item) function as follows:
 

public void setFocus(Item item) {
Display.getDisplay(AMC.getMIDlet()).setCurrentItem(item);
}

 
The way we use this is that we call it as part of the implementation of the constructor of the Form with the intent that the specific item passed in would have focus when the form is displayed.
 
This approach works correctly in the WTK emulator but does not work correctly on the 7925 device.  What we see on the device is that the first item on the form is highlighted and has focus instead of the one we requested with our call to setForm().
 
Is there some other way to do this that will work correctly on the device?  One theory I have is that since we are calling it before the Form has actually been displayed we may be calling it too early in the lifecycle of the Form.  Would it work better if I tried this instead?
 
Display.runSerially(setFocus(item));
 
I believe this would delay invoking the call until after the UI thread has returned from creating the Form.