Mobile Computing And Commerce : Overview, Benefits, And Drivers ...

In the traditional computing environment it was necessary to come to the computer to do some work on it. All computers were connected to each other, to networks, servers, etc. via wires. This situation limited the use of computers and created hardship for people and workers on the move. In particular, salespeople ,repair people, service employees, law enforcement agents, and utility workers,can be more effective if they can use information technology while at their jobs in the ?eld or in transit. There are also mobile vacationers, people on holiday who wish to be connected with home or of?ce.

The ?rst solution was to make computers small enough so they can be easily carried about. First, the laptop computer was invented, and later on smaller and smaller computers, such as the PDAs and other handhelds, appeared. These carriable computers are called mobile devices. They have become lighter with time and more powerful as far as processing speed and storage. At the end of the day, mobile workers could download (or upload) information from or to a regular desktop computer in a process known as synchronization. To speed up the?sync,?special connecting cradles (docking stations) were created.

These devices provided the ?rst application of mobile computing, a computing paradigm designed for workers who travel outside the boundaries of their organizations or for any other people traveling outside their homes. Sales-people were able to make proposals at customers? of?ces; a traveler could read and answer all of the day?s e-mails while on a plane. One could work with the mobile device as long as the battery was working.

For example, Millstone Coffee equipped its 300 drivers with handheld devices and mobile applications for use while they are on the road selling roasted coffee beans to 13,000 stores in the United States. Using the devices the drivers can track inventory, generate invoices, and capture detailed sales and marketing data at each store. The system does not use wireless; instead, the drivers synchronize (?sync?) their handhelds with the company?s main system at the end of the day, a process that takes only 2 minutes.

The second solution to the need for mobile computing was to replace wires with wireless communication media. Wireless systems have been in use in radio, TV and telephones for a long time. So it was natural to adopt them to the computing environment.

The third solution was a combination of the ?rst two, namely to use mobile devices in a wireless environment. Referred to as wireless mobile computing, this combination enables a real-time connection between a mobile device and other computing environments, such as the Internet or an intranet. This innovation is creating a revolution in the manner in which people use computers. It is spreading at work and at home. It is also used in education, health care, entertainment, and much more. The new computing model is basically leading to ubiquity?meaning that computing is available anywhere, at any time. (Note: Since many mobile applications now go wireless, the term mobile computing? today is often used generally to describe wireless mobile computing.)

Due to some current technical limitations, we cannot (yet) do with mobile computing all the things that we do with regular computing. However, as time passes we can do more and more. On the other hand, we can do things in mobile computing that we cannot do in the regular computing environment. A major?boost to mobile computing was provided in 2003 by Intel with its Centrino chip.This chip, which will be a standard feature in most laptops by 2005 (Estrada, 2002), includes three important capabilities: (1) a connection device to a wireless local area network, (2) low usage of electricity, enabling users to do more work on a single battery charge, and (3) a high level of security. The Centrino is expected to make mobile computing the common computing environment

A second driving development of mobile computing is the introduction of the third- and fourth-wireless generation environments known as 3G and 4G. We will describe these later on

?

?

ticket city bowl 2011 nfl playoff schedule cowboys vs giants ndaa timberwolves weight watchers rawhide