What is the main purpose of using Spring Boot in Java application development?.

The main goal of using Spring Boot is to simplify and accelerate the development of Java applications through auto-configuration and embedded starter dependencies.

Spring Boot allows for quick creation of ready-to-run applications with minimal configuration, freeing developers from manually configuring many Spring Framework components.

An example of a minimal Spring Boot application:

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }
}

Thus, Spring Boot increases productivity and reduces the likelihood of errors during configuration.