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What is Wireless?
Many software companies and consulting
firms are claiming newfound expertise in wireless these days. The biggest players
in the web and application server market are touting that their servers are wireless
enabled. Consulting firms are jumping on the bandwagon and using these servers
to convince their clients of their own wireless expertise. What do these groups
really know about wireless technology? With the adoption of the Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) by many of the mobile phone manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe,
text-based data can be displayed on wireless phones and handheld devices using
the Wireless Markup Language (WML). WML is a distant cousin of the HTML that's
used to create full-sized web pages. People in Japan have it even better with
their i-mode or Compact HTML technology that lets you view a miniature version
of a full-color web page in a wireless phone or handheld device. There's nothing
inherently wrong with these technologies. Being able to locate a restaurant or
a movie theater from the convenience of your iPAQ handheld or StarTac mobile phone
is a good thing. Most any software company or consulting firm has what it takes
to deliver this kind of content to your phone or handheld. This is not rocket-science
and it doesn't require any amount of wireless expertise to pull it off. So why
are all these organizations claiming to be wireless experts? To get your business
of course.
Nobody's Home
How
many times have you cursed your mobile phone for dropping your phone calls due
to a lack of signal? Have you ever had full signal strength on your phone in your
office on one day, only to have zero signal in the same spot a day later? This
may explain why the so-called Mobile Commerce revolution has yet to take off.
B2C and B2B e-commerce sites based on these miniature web pages delivered to your
phone or handheld are only as reliable as the wireless network they're utilizing.
Would you be inclined to enter your credit card number, cross your fingers, close
your eyes, and hope that your e-commerce transaction goes through on your cell
phone? I think not. The new players in this arena reveal their lack of understanding
when it comes to wireless networks by building software in the same fashion that
they did for wired networks like corporate LANs and the Internet. Too many costly
assumptions are made.
Anticipate
Wireless
networks are inherently unreliable. This fact alone means that you need to take
another look at your assumptions and methodologies for software development. Anticipate
an absence of signal strength. Anticipate that cellular towers may be down. Anticipate
that the higher frequencies used by wireless networks have a hard time penetrating
office buildings. Anticipate complete failure. These gloomy statements should
now form the baseline for all future wireless development assumptions. When you
accept this fact, you then realize that the miniature web pages provided by WML
and i-mode are nothing more than dumb terminal screens that cannot be trusted
for critical operations. You must adopt a framework that leads to the development
of software that thrives even when the sky is falling. This means software that
can anticipate a changing wireless environment must reside on the given wireless
device.
Intelligent Software
All
kinds of business applications are being built to run on mobile phones, Pocket
PCs, Palms, Handsprings, and other wireless devices too numerous to count. These
applications should be designed to excel at what they do while not concerning
themselves with wireless network issues. Instead, they should hand off their data
to a separate, intelligent software entity whose job it is to get that data to
its final destination. When you send an overnight package to a business partner
on the other side of the world, you don't concern yourself with how FedEx or UPS
makes it happen. You just want your package to make it from point A to point B.
So too should it be on a wireless device. The intelligent software that manages
to get your data across the harsh wireless environment should provide you with
easy to use interfaces that let your business applications plug right in. Whether
the device connects via a wireless network, a modem, or a synchronization cradle,
the software must be ready to react at a moments notice to the existence of a
connected state in order to deliver its payload and guarantee its delivery.
Choose
Wisely
Wireless networks are now becoming more mainstream
than ever. Wireless LANs now travel at Ethernet speeds with a greater range and
built-in security. Wireless data networks are now providing Internet coverage
to many of the large metropolitan areas. Businesses of all sizes and disciplines
are now seizing upon the advantages provided by wireless networks. This growth
will continue to increase in step with the growing mobile workforce. When your
business makes the eventual decision to move its Client/Server and Internet applications
to wireless devices, do your homework and look for a partner that understands
that building mission-critical wireless applications doesn't mean developing tiny
web pages.