Compare Android ApplicationInfo so that collections of them can be sorted

ApplicationInfoComparer.java

public static class ApplicationInfoComparer implements Comparator<ApplicationInfo> {
        private PackageManager pm1;

        ApplicationInfoComparer(PackageManager pm) {
            pm1 = pm;
        }

        @Override
        public int compare(ApplicationInfo x, ApplicationInfo y) {
            if (null == pm1)
                return 0;

            if (null == x || null == x.loadLabel(pm1))
                return -1;

            if (null == y || null == y.loadLabel(pm1))
                return 1;

            try {
                return compare(x.loadLabel(pm1).toString(), y.loadLabel(pm1).toString());
            } catch (NullPointerException ex) {
                return 0;
            }
        }

        //  Compares two strings lexicographically. Returns an integer indicating whether this string is greater than (result is > 0),
        //  equal to (result is = 0), or less than (result is < 0) the argument.
        private static int compare(String a, String b) {
            return a.compareTo(b);
        }
    }

SampleImplementation.java

// get list of installed applications
List<ApplicationInfo> list_user_app = pm1.getInstalledApplications(0);
// sort the list using the comparer
Collections.sort(list_user_app, new ApplicationInfoComparer(pm1));
// list_user_app is now sorted