Definition
of Mobile and Wireless
The definition of mobile and wireless varies from person to
person and organization to organization. In many cases, the terms mobile and
wireless are used interchangeably, even though they are two different things.
Let's start with the term mobile. Mobile is the ability to be on the move. A
mobile device is anything that can be used on the move, ranging from laptops to
mobile phones. As long as location is not fixed, it is considered mobile. Areas
that are not included in our definition of mobile include remote offices, home
offices, or home appliances. While these are definitely remote, they are not
considered mobile.
Wireless refers to the transmission of voice and data over radio
waves. It allows workers to communicate with enterprise data without requiring a
physical connection to the network. Wireless devices include anything that uses
a wireless network to either send or receive data. The wireless network itself
can be accessed from mobile workers, as well as in fixed locations. Figure 1.1 depicts the relationship
between mobile and wireless. As you can see, in most cases, wireless is a subset
of mobile; but in many cases, an application can be mobile without being
wireless.
For an application to be considered mobile or wireless, it must be
tailored to the characteristics of the device that it runs on. Limited
resources, low network bandwidth, and intermittent connectivity all factor into
the proper design of these applications.
Wireless applications that are not mobile use fixed wireless
networks. These are wireless networks that provide network access in a fixed
environment. An example is a wireless local area network (WLAN) that is used to
give desktops network access. Many businesses as well as home users are
installing WLAN technology to avoid having to install network cables throughout
their buildings. Another example is network access via satellites in remote
locations where there are no other connectivity options.
On the other side, we have mobile applications that are not
wireless. There are many examples where this is the case. Any application that
can be used on the move and that does not have wireless connectivity fits into
this category. This includes many laptop and personal digital assistant (PDA)
applications. Until only a few years ago, it was actually rare to have wireless
data access for mobile devices. For these mobile applications, data is often
synchronized using a fixed connection and stored on the device for use at a
later time. It is worthwhile to note that even though these applications do not
require wireless connectivity, they can often benefit from it when it is
available. A sizeable portion of this book is dedicated to looking at these
types of applications, which are referred to as smart client applications.
Now that we have defined mobile and wireless, it is time to
look at some of the areas in which mobile applications are being deployed.
Similar to the terms mobile and wireless, there is often confusion around the
terms m-commerce and m-business.
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