Mobile and wireless computing - Essay Example

Mobile and wireless computing Mobile and wireless computing The main two reason challenging development of softwares for wireless devices are the platforms and the size of the deployment that the developer is aiming (B'Far, 2005). These factors can be translated to simply; number of competing standards for application development on various devices and adaption of software applications to match the requirement. Let’s begin with competition within application standards of development on various devices; for a long time Nokia group using Symbian OS has dominated in this field but not anymore, there is a lot of competition from iOS, Android, HP webOS, BlackBerry, Window Mobile and Bada from Samsung (Mehdi Khosrowpour, 2006).

This is a big challenge to developers because; they have to limit themselves to a certain platform or standard so as to master it and come up with a good software in that specific platform, another reason is that, some of the platforms have dominated the sector causing more to fall and collapse, this platforms also each has its own integrated development environment that allow a developer to write, test and implement or deploy an application software through provision of tools in the targeted platform environment making it difficult for one to learn or use same tools and procedure for different platforms (Umar, 2004).

This is a big setback in the development of wireless softwares because of lack of shareability between existing platforms; where each is campaigning to stamp out its opponent. The second reason is the creation or adaption of software applications to match the requirements and not the other way round. This means that developers have to work their way upwards from the requirements for a working application of software. One is limited or confined to certain specifications that are set in the requirement function statement (B'Far, 2005).

This is a reason for a challenge in this field because, most developers prefer working on the software directly instead of matching their work with certain requirement; they like to exercise their freedom to do whatever they feel is good. The whole idea of requirement- centered or oriented emerges mostly because of the deployment size and aim, common in commercial software creation. This state is unavoidable and therefore, the introduction of the software life cycle (Umar, 2004). The above reasons are associated with the software components and mobile computing.

The major computing components include; the mobile client OS software that is in the device, the mobile application logics and application user interface, microbrowser wireless application protocol, Markup languages, database or application server software and back-end application software, application and wireless middleware, and a data synchronization and mobile device management software (Umar, 2004). All these components are in a way related and affected by the challenges that face the development of wireless softwares.

The platform issues are widely experienced in more areas of the components such as communication between back-end and user interface on a mobile device is a major issue. This is because most database management softwares might be originally created by or for a target platform environment, so introducing it to new environments and creating the connections might be hard for some developers who might not be having enough information about the other environment (Mehdi Khosrowpour, 2006). Another issue is creation of user interfaces; a developer is required to create an interface as specified by the user or clients, avoiding them from exercising their knowledge and creativity.

The end user application that also entails data collection and public queries may not be reused in a different environment other than the usage in the current platform; Most platforms cannot allow imports from a different platform environment if there is no collaboration between the environment such as Android and j2ME. The other factor is microbrowser wireless application protocol(WAP), this is also called mobile browser; designed specifically for handheld devices. Some of this browsers are browser versions of the popular web browsers but others are designed independently.

The independency of this browsers create a gulf simply because of competition; but the WAP, which is an open standard has bridged this gulf by formulating standard for wireless web page design. WAP uses Wireless Markup Language to create its web pages, through the use of WMLscripts. The only issue designers encounter is the microbrowsers is the limited bandwidth within which they must create their functions. The markup language is a factor that affect the challenges of software development in this context; markup languages are languages that annotate text for the computer to manipulate, so they are human readable.

Most handheld devices use Wireless Markup Language(WML) scripts to writes the web pages, but introduction of eXtensible Markup Language(XML) in modern smartphone has stirred the field. Most of the competitors in the field have extended their functions into accepting XML in creation of applications and softwares that are related to browsing. WML is mostly used in devices that are using the WAP technology; which some smart devices ignore in most cases, through developing functions that will allow access to the web pages in more better ways.

Both WAP and Markup Language factors are affected by the competition in the field; this is because, some platforms prefer independency in the field than just relying on some stated protocols. Another internal issue on the software components is data synchronization and mobile device management software, which entails and controls the backend servers and the data in the mobile devices such as the Synchrologic Mobile Suite (Mehdi Khosrowpour, 2006). This software can easily be shared between the platform environments, but due to the competitive nature in the field, some platforms prefer creating their own and avoid sharing it out or placing it in the open source cart on the internet for other to gain access to it (Umar, 2004).

Mobile client OS software is the most important component in the mobile computing (B'Far, 2005). This component resides in the device and it is a specialized operating system like Symbian OS, or a Web browser. Most of these softwares are used in some few devices and in related or collaborating platforms, the rest of the platforms have therefore, to formulate their own softwares of this kind (B'Far, 2005). Lastly let’s look at the wireless and application middleware that link application servers to multiple wireless networks and web-based application servers and backend systems consecutively.

Production companies such as IBM, Oracle, or BEA do not share their servers between each other but they can form collaboration with mobile production companies through allowing them access their servers and use them to create the middleware (B'Far, 2005). References B'Far, R. (2005). Mobile Computing Principles: Designing and Developing Mobile Applications with UML and XML. New York: Cambridge University Press. Mehdi Khosrowpour, I. R. (2006). Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Technology Management: 2006 Information Resources Management Association International Conference.

Washington, DC: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Umar, A. (2004). Mobile Computing And Wireless Communications. Pennsylvania: nge solutions, inc.