Mobile Internet

The sections below cover the fundamentals of wireless networking and offer explanations of how technologies should be deployed. To go directly to a section, click on one of the links:

What is the Mobile Internet?
The Business Benefits of the Mobile Internet
Deploying the Mobile Internet in the Corporate Environment
Issues with the Mobile Internet
The Future of the Mobile Internet
Further Resources for the Mobile Internet

What is the Mobile Internet

The Mobile Internet is an ensemble of technologies which, together, enable the delivery of applications and services from the Internet onto mobile devices. In other words, they mean you can access the Web from your mobile phone. The technologies are layered, so from the top:

application platforms
operating systems
transmission protocols

Application platforms are environments and protocols such as the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), its competitor in Japan iMode, and Sun’s Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). The purpose of these platforms is to provide a runtime environment for applications on mobile devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Our sources have uncovered:

WAP – a white paper on WAP can be found at the WAP Forum. It provides a reasonable overview but is out of date. A better paper is at Billing World – despite the disturbing title WAP and Wireless Data Are Here – Is Your Billing System Ready? If you can ignore the billing-specific bits (which are few) and concentrate on WAP information, the paper provides an excellent summary of the protocol, as well as a critique of WAP compared to alternative solutions (for example, iMode or HTML over wireless).
iMode – generally perceived to be more functional and usable than WAP, iMode is the dominant standard in Japan. An article describing the features of iMode can be found here, and a summary of its strengths is in the article i-Mode: Lessons from Japan
J2ME – this platform is still to make inroads in its own right, as it is perceived to be a little bulky for existing handheld devices. There is an introduction to J2ME for the technical, here. The less technical can look here for a brief explanation.

At the server side as well, Web servers need to be built or adapted to take into account the needs of the devices they support.

Operating Systems are provide the layer that manages the device and provides support for the application platforms. As well as PDA operating systems such as Microsoft PocketPC and PalmOS, there is the EPOC operating system developed by the Symbian alliance of Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Psion.

Transmission Protocols enable the wireless communications between the mobile device and the service provider. Protocols are currently “narrowband” (read slooooow, think modem speeds of a few years ago), second-generation (2G) protocols such as GSM and CDMA. More information on current protocols is to be found in the excellent paper Wireless Infrastructure in Three Regions, which covers all the main transmission standards in use in the United States, Europe and Japan, and also describes how which vendors have the market share in each area.

Business Benefits of the Mobile Internet

The reasons why an organisation would want to deploy mobile Internet facilities may be grouped according to whether they are facing the customer or the employee. Overall, the keyword is reach – it is possible to deploy applications to a much wider audience than before. Thus:

Customer-facing applications such as mobile portals and m-commerce may permit revenue generation on a greater scale than before.
Employee-facing applications have similar benefits to those running on wireless networks – it is possible to deploy applications more flexibly, and make employees more effective in the process.

Deploying the Mobile Internet in the Corporate Environment

Hmmmm, how long is a piece of string? Mobile Internet application deployment is like Internet application deployment, but taking into account the differences between “traditional” Web applications and their mobile Internet equivalents. This doesn’t help much, apart from indicating how difficult the question is to answer. There is a good list of things to be done at eBuilt’s web site here – OK, it is brochureware but its still a good list.

Perhaps the most important differences are due to the bandwidth limitations and the size of the client device. We cover these points when we discuss the issues, here.

Issues with the Mobile Internet

“WAP is crap” so the adage goes. “Not fair!” cry the vendors and service providers. “So true” answers a number of people, for two fundamental reasons: bandwidth and usability.

usability – go no further than read Jakob Nielsen’s summary of a WAP usability survey here. And, if you don’t believe the report, try any of the following on a WAP phone: going to a new WAP site, writing an email, reading the news.
Bandwidth – the 9,600kbps connections supported by most mobile phones is proving insufficient for many applications.
Security – Security is an inevitable issue with using wireless technologies. The surprisingly good paper from F-Secure describes some of the issues and how to address them. WAP does not offer end-to-end security, as reported here.

iMode avoids a number of the issues above – it has bigger screens and it uses SSL from device to site. However it is only available in Japan.

For a summary of the issues and what is being done about the issues in WAP, check out this article on FT.com. Also, for a real-world view that isn’t quite so negative, see the PMN article So how useful is WAP?

The Future of the Mobile Internet

Perhaps the four most significant (and most necessary) changes to mobile Internet platforms and protocols are to be in the form of increased bandwidth, device usability and transaction security.

Increased Bandwidth – the paper Wireless Infrastructure in Three Regions describes the likely evolution of protocols towards broadband (read “sufficient for multimedia”). In Europe the main contender is the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standard UMTS, while elsewhere W-CDMA looks set to rule to roost. In the US, given the high competitiveness between hardware vendors and service providers, who can say. For an in-depth view of third generation (3G) technologies, click here. There is an excellent summary of a Datamonitor report on 3G here. Telecommunications guru Peter Cochrane expresses his doubts over the viability of 3G here.
Device Usability – new devices with bigger screens, better input mechanisms and so on are currently at the prototype stage. For AllNetDevices’ take on what is to come, click here.
Transaction Security – the even iMode, with its end-to-end use of SSL, cannot be considered as secure enough to guarantee protection against all ills. Only the arrival of key-managed security in the form of PKIs for the mobile Internet, can change this. According to the article here, it still has a way to go.
Integration between the mobile standards – application standards are slowly moving towards integration, particularly iMode and WAP as you can see here.

There can be no doubt also that the line between the mobile and the wired Internet will blur. In this way, the mobile Internet will likely provide a basis for Web services and even ASPs in the future. And of course, applications will evolve for example into the car as described here.

Further Resources on the Mobile Internet

www.thefeature.com - bought and paid for by Nokia, but easy to navigate and full of good information.

Eurotechnology – this time a Japan-centric site but with a good iMode FAQ

MobileWhitePapers – hosts some useful – um – mobile white papers

EpocWorld – has an accessible glossary on the mobile Internet.