ITKS540 Introduction to mobile technology and business

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ITKS540 Introduction to mobile technology and
business

• Jani Kurhinen
• Fall 2008

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Contents

• The course provides overall view of the mobile
  computing sector
• Technologies
• Application scenarios
• Communication
• Entertainment
• Industrial
• Social aspects
• Business models and scenarios

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Study methods

• Traditional lectures
• Slides will be available.
• Group discussions as a part of a lecture
• Tuesdays in September (3 times).
• Self-study material will be provided on previous
  Thursday.
• One assignment work.
• Final examination.

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Evaluation

• Normal numerical grading (1-5)
• 15p 1, 27p 5 max 30p
• Final examination
• 5 questions, á 6p

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Motivation to the course

• The development of both information technology
  hardware and software has created new
  possibilities and challenges
• The current technology enables the usage of real
  time data.
• Availability and a speed of networks are
  limited.

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Motivation to the course

• There are a lot of different types of wireless
  devices for different purposes.
• Users of the wireless or mobile terminals have
  totally different needs from an old- fashioned PC
  user.
• Mobile computing is different from traditional
  stationary computing.

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What are mobile applications?

• When talking about mobile applications the client
  device is expected to be a pocket-fitting device.
• Smart phones, palm-size or handheld computers...
• This type of services are targeted for devices of
  the macro-mobile environment.
• Small size, limited bandwidth, low processing
  power.

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An alternative approach

• Essential part of current computing
  infrastructure.
• User needs vary from lightweight entertainment to
  heavyweight industrial systems
• (or vice versa)

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Why are mobile applications needed?

• People are moving even more than before
• They must still be able to manage contacts and
  events and access networked information.
• The web created new needs for availability of
  information.
• Instant access to needed data.
• Data must be available 24h a day.

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Why are mobile applications needed?

• What is mobile computing?
• Usually mobile computing is associated with web
  access using the cell phone.
• A connection from the field to an internal
  network of a company is also easily considered as
  mobile computing.

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Why are mobile applications needed?

• Mobile computing also includes any kind of data
  processing with some kind of an easily portable
  device whether or not it has a connection to a
  network or other devices.

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Mobile vs. wireless

• What does wireless mean?
• Wireless defines a way to connect two or more
  devices to each other.

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How does mobilisation change the types of
services?

• Quality of service may vary during the
  connection.
• Bandwidth, delay, reliability.
• Security issues must be considered.
• Man-in-the-middle.
• Lost/stolen client terminal.
• Lost data.
• Context sensitivity.

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Mobile content

• User rates of the Internet and mobile phones are
  high in the same countries.
• It seems that these techniques spread all over
  the world hand in hand.
• "Developing in HTML for Web is soon going to be
  as sexy as developing in Cobol for the IBM S/360"
  --Johan Hjelm 2000

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Mobile content

• If a user doesn't get positive user experience,
  he/she will disappoint to the whole system
• Not just your service or the terminal, but also
  everything in between.
• Instead of designing for presentation, you need
  to design for the whole user experience.
• Not to make information look nice, but to make it
  work well.

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Mobile content

• Data connection made with mobile terminal differs
  from connection made with PC.
• You are not just browsing in the web, but you
  need (or want) something.
• Users are not interested to have web everywhere,
  they just want the data.

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Development of the mobile services

• In the first phase engineers tried to think what
  could be fitted into 160 characters.
• Phone numbers, addresses, horoscopes
• The second phase was translating existing (web)
  services to mobile terminals.
• The third one is to create new services to mobile
  terminals.

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Development of the mobile computing

• The era started when movement of people become
  crucial.
• The first phase was nomadic computing.
• It wasn't anymore enough to share data between
  co-workers at the office.
• The mobility of the people and
• data access were the key elements.

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Development of the mobile computing

• For nomadic computing the data access include
• communication,
• personal information management,
• information access and
• temporary storing of modified data.
• Note that the mobility of the computing devices
  are not necessary required, but mobility of the
  data and user profiles.

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Development of the mobile computing

• The second phase was true mobile computing.
• Users require that they are able not just to be
  mobile, but also perform data processing tasks
  while moving.

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Development of the mobile computing

• Originally the true mobile computing had two main
  reasons
• wireless access to networks (both communication
  and information) and
• management of rapidly changing personal data.
• Today entertainment and leisure activities have
  important role.

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Development of the mobile computing

• The purpose of mobile devices was not to replace
  desktop workstations or server computers.
• The purpose was to offer a new way to deal with
  information.

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The cost of mobility

• Mobile elements are resource poor when compared
  to static elements.
• Mobile device should be small.
• The size of the mobile device leads to smaller
  resources.
• Mobile elements are easier to be damaged, stolen
  or lost.
• They are fragile, valuable and small.

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The cost of mobility

• Mobile elements rely on batteries.
• Energy for running mobile device must be carried
  with the device.
• Only finite time of battery power is available.
• Wireless networks are more expensive, slower and
  less reliable.

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The cost of mobility

• A resource-poor mobile device cant be the only
  data processing device.
• Data must be synchronised with other computing
  devices.
• Mobile computing systems are not yet standardised
  enough.
• Every mobile platform offers its own applications
  and service solutions.

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Mobile terminals dont suite for every situation

• If a new technology doesnt bring along any value
  it shouldnt be used.
• Is the form of the data such kind that it is
  meaningful to present on a screen of a mobile
  terminal?
• Large database tables of multimedia presentations
  would not be best viewed with a tiny screen.

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Mobile computing

• What if mobile computing could be more?
• Mobile device is usually regarded just a mobile
  device.
• Everything that has something to do with a
  wireless or mobile are classified to the same
  category.
• A vehicle-mounted terminal in a lift truck has
  only a little common with a smart phone.

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Mobile computing

• Because of wide range of requirements it is
  impossible to offer one device for everyone.
• Different kinds of devices are needed to fulfill
  users needs.
• One needs as small a phone with a calendar as
  possible while other needs water resistant tool
  that wont break easily.

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Mobile computing

• It is important to understand that there are
  multiple types of mobile environments.
• Each environment has its own users and own
  dedicated mobile devices.
• What kind of devices can be classified as a
  mobile computing device?

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Smart phone
Communicator
Handheld computer
Tablet computer
Mobility (size)
Ultra portable
Laptop
Primary purpose of use
Communication
Data processing