Spiral Arm News

Understanding the Nokia and Vodafone Mobile Service Architecture.

Nokia and Vodafone have announced a clarification of the Java platform for mobile devices. It's an important step forward, so here's an explanation of what it means....

As we explained in our one-page summary of Java technologies (PDF download) there are two strands to Java on mobile phones: there's the mobile profile running on the Connected Limited Device Configuration; and there's the personal profile running on the more powerful Connected Device Configuration. They are often known as the 'JTWI stack', which is consumer focused, and the 'Tsunami stack', which is enterprise focused. The issue that needed resolving was the availability of consumer services on enterprise devices: it's a grey area where it may be possible to use consumer services (such as picture messages) in an enterprise application, but it's not guaranteed. And guarantees are what makes the Java platform so useful.

The proposal then, clarifies these issues, and acknowledges that devices are becoming more capable, but at the same time allows for the wide diversity of devices and for backward compatibility with the Java technologies currently out there. In short, the initial Java proposals for mobile devices were very much attuned to the limited power of mobile phones (as computing devices). The current proposals support the on-going growth of a broader range of applications.

The changes are scheduled for next year. What does it mean for today? It means we can carry on developing compatible Java applications, and start planning ahead with the knowledge of what's coming up.

Nokia and Vodafone may have proposed the new architecture, but it's important to realize that pretty much everyone is involved: Motorola, Orange, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Sun, Symbian, IBM, Intel, RIM, T-Mobile... That's one of the great successes of the way Java evolves, by involving all the various competitors in an industry. Sun will develop the all important test toolkits to ensure all vendors produce consistent, compatible devices.

Nokia have provided a downloadable technical summary, and commented: "This initiative will significantly strengthen Java's leading position as the environment for powerful, state-of-the-art mobility solutions for both consumers and enterprises in the era of 3G" (Pertti Korhonen, chief technology officer at Nokia, quoted in Computing).

BBC: Boom times ahead for smartphones. "We are starting to see the beginning of their mainstream adoption".

The analysis echos our own views: "In four years' time a lot of us with have a phone with smart abilities but we won't call them smartphones".

Nokia to offer enterprise users additional security: "it is vital to bring the same level of security to mobile devices as currently exists on wired IT devices such as laptops".

The announcement at Tom's Hardware Guide goes on to say that the technology will be available first on a Series 80 (enterprise) device and "will allow the encryption of many different kinds of data including contact info and calendar dates, emails, sms and mms messages, and even memory cards." A Series 60 (smartphone) version has also been promised.

An article on TheFeature comments: "Corporate security officers worry that a stolen or misplaced device could reveal sensitive data because of email or documents stored on it".

Our own Vault software has been doing similar things for some time, and it is a great step forward that Nokia will (we assume) secure all the data on the device, and enforce the use of encryption. For devices that do not have current top-of-the-range performance or for non-Symbian devices, Vault and similar dedicated applications have their place.

A novel delivered via SMS: 60 chapters of 70 characters each, reports the BBC.

Tourism and mobile technology: a study of tourists suggests mobile applications.
Download the paper.

This paper from the University of Glasgow (advertised by
TheFeature) followed tourists on city holidays to Edinburgh and Glasgow. It studies tourist use of documents (maps, timetables, guide books) in various tourist destinations (train stations, hotels, historic places) and also at tourist information centres.

The "problems" encountered by tourists are classified as what to do (time scales, scope), how to do them, when to do them (duration of trip, opening times, distances), finding where things are, and sharing. It notes that tourists solve these problems with technologies such as digital cameras, mobile phones and the web, but the study emphasizes that solving problems is part of the enjoyment of tourism: technologies should therefore support the tourist without being heavy handed.

As an example, consider map use. Tourists are not necessarily looking for optimal solutions. Sometimes tourists will use a map to navigate towards an area, rather than a specific destination, with the expectation that there will be interesting things in the area. With the aid of a guide books, a tourist may just wander to discover clusters of, say, restaurants.

Tourism is often a group activity. In the US 79% of tourism involves two or more individuals. Mobile tourist applications should support the group nature of tourism, an in particular group problem solving. Meeting other tourists is another aspect of the social nature of tourism. Word of mouth advice has a greater value than any guide book.

The study suggests the following applications:

• Tying the locations of group members, so they can see the location of each other.
• Sharing of comments and reviews.
• Paper guides and electronic guides should be lnked, e.g., by barcodes or similar mechanisms.
• Mapping systems should support wandering, rather than direct point-to-point route finding.
• Travelblogs could support the post-visit experience of a trip.

Mobile business market to grow, according to Frost
& Sullivan's analysis of the emerging mobile applications market.

Growth in Europe has not matched expectations: network operators are not pushing mobile business applications, and users need convincing of the benefits. System integrators are the main way for applications to reach business users: "vertical market take-up is being driven as much by the existing market focus of SIs and vendors as by inherent need".

WiFi is seen as a challenge to mobile application software, but both are expected to coexist due to complimentary benefits. For example, "the growing versatility of handsets has helped avoid the time-consuming task of rebooting a laptop".

TheFeature comment on this report. "Little has been available to corporate users outside access to email, however recent innovations have been increasing awareness and demand for enterprise focused applications."

WAP is alive and well because operators are selling services rather than the technology, comments TheFeature.

Technology improvements have contributed too. These comments are on the back of the MDA announcement that 1.11b WAP pages were viewed in the UK in July.

Orange to offer single sign-on to partners, reports
WSJ.

The ability to sign-on once on a mobile device is a big win for convenience. Once signed in to a service, other participating services will be able to recognize the user, thereby avoiding having to authenticate many times.

The Mobile Opportunity for publishers: "develop new revenue stream [...] provides a bridge to the next generation of readers; [...] it can add value to services offered to advertisers; and it can reduce administrative and workflow costs".

BBC: US students receive iPods preloaded with academic calendar and information for new students.

"...students also can download faculty-provided course content, including language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books" (Duke University press release).

The iPod supports notes format allows third parties to put textual information, with links to media files, onto an iPod.