Enterprise J2ME Developing Mobile Java Applications [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

1.4 Mobile Commerce Landscape

The previous sections explained the rationales and values behind enterprise mobile applications. After a company develops a mobile strategy, the natural next step is to implement it. Given the complexity of a mobile commerce solution, it requires collaborations from many different application and infrastructure service providers. Mobile commerce provider firms can generate revenues from hardware, software, or services sales.

1.4.1 Mobile Device Manufacturers

There is a wide range of mobile devices, including many kinds of cell phones, PDAs, consoles, and auto-mounted devices. Since mobile devices are to become pervasive personal belongings, they pose some unique design and technical challenges to manufacture. Successful mobile devices should have the following features.

Small size

Rich multimedia presentation capabilities

Fast response time

Large memory for data and applications

Long battery life

Fashionable and personalizable

Billions of dollars have been invested in mobile hardware research by leading companies such as Intel, Nokia, Motorola, and Qualcomm; they have produced many competing chipsets and handset designs.

1.4.2 Mobile Internet Service Providers

Mobile commerce requires mobile devices to be connected to data networks. Mobile Internet Service Providers (MISPs) are often wireless network carriers such as SprintPCS and AT&T. Those carriers build radio towers across the country and buy expensive radio spectrum licenses. They provide national cell phone voice and data services and often bundle Internet services in wireless access packages. Companies can also partner with wireless carriers to provide mobile Internet access to their customers under their own brand name. An example of an independent MISP is Palm.net.

If your mobile application is internal to your company, you may not need a national MISP. You can set up your own local corporate wireless network. Provision stations around your building or campus connect your wireless network to your internal network and then connect to the general Internet through your company firewalls. This way, you act as your own MISP.

1.4.3 Mobile Software Platform Providers

Given the diversity of mobile hardware, there are many mobile device operation systems. Examples include PalmOS, Symbian OS, Windows CE, and Embedded Linux. The OS SDKs (Software Developer Kits) often lack advanced programming language support and important libraries for business functions.

So, on top of operating systems, there are also application software platforms. Those platforms run on a variety of mobile devices and provide advanced sets of development tools and features. Examples of such platforms include WAP microbrowsers, Java, and Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. Java mobile application platform is one of the major focuses of this book.

1.4.4 Mobile Application Service Providers

Since mobile devices have very limited processing power and poor network connections, they often rely on backend servers to conduct sophisticated tasks. Mobile Application Service Providers (MASP) provide middleware and backend services. Examples of MASPs are 247 Solutions, JP Mobile, AGEA, Avantgo, and many others.

Companies looking for customized inhouse enterprise solutions can become their own MASPs. This book is targeted to MASP developers in both outsource and inhouse firms. We discuss mobile commerce-specific backend and middleware solutions in detail in the rest of this book.