Normally when we write jdbc programs, the first two statements are :

Class.forName("classname");
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("....");


But, why we have to use the class using forName? Why it cant be implemented as follows -

import sun.jdbc....*;
.
.
.
JdbcOdbcDriver jd = new JdbcOdbcDriver();
Connection con = jd.getConnection("...");
.
.
.

I mean, why they cannot be imported from proprietory packages like servlets? I mean HttpServlet and all are not part of JDK originally. But we import them from javax.servlet packet which is present in web server.
So why jdbc drivers are loaded using Class.forName? Why they cant be used by creating objects?

Thanks in advance.