Mobile Computing Hardware & Software Components

The following components comprise a complete end-to-end solution for mobile computing applications:

Hardware:

• Mobile computing device - be it, a notebook, hand-held computer, pen computer, PDA, PalmOS compatible PDA, Symbian EPOC handheld device, Windows CE/Pocket PC device,  or a modern smart phone with Wireless Internet connectivity
• A suitably-configured wireline or wireless WAN modem, wireless LAN adapter, or a flash card either as a distinctly separate accessory or embedded on the device - as is the trend now.
• A Web Server with wireless support, WAP gateway, a Communications Server and/or MCSS (Mobile communications server switch)  or a wireless gateway embedded in wireless carrier's network - this server provides communications functionality to allow the handheld device to communicate with the Internet or Intranet infrastructure.
• An application or database server (the hardware piece) with application logic and business application database - tier 2 server
• Optionally, a large enterprise application server (tier3) in the form of a Unix super server, IBM'ss AS/400 server or IBM's OS/390 mainframe. .

Software:

• Mobile client OS-type software that resides in the mobile device - it may be Windows98/2000/NT, PalmOS, Win CE (or Pocket PC), EPOC, a specialized  OS like Blackberry, or a Web browser
• Mobile application user interface with application logic in a handheld PDA, smartphone, Palm or a Wintel notebook. In the Internet world, it is often under the control of a browser or microbrowser. 
• Application server and/or database server software
• Back-end legacy application software on large Unix servers (from vendors such as Sun, IBM, and HP), IBM AS/400,or IBM S/390 mainframes
• Application middleware (a piece of software that communicates with backend legacy systems and web-based application servers). IBM's WebSphere, BEA's WebLogic or Oracle's 9i are typical examples in this category. 
• Wireless middleware that links multiple wireless networks to application servers
• Data synchronization software that synchronizes data in the mobile device with the network server or the backend server
• Mobile Device management software like XcelleNet's Afaria, Synchrologic Mobile suite or Mobile Automation's MA2000.
• Finally, the most useful software - end user application like messaging, sales force automation, public query, data collection, etc.  

Network
A wireless network - this may be either a private network that police agencies and emergency health services use or a public shared network that is provided by network providers, such as Cingular (formerly Bell South Wireless Data), Verizon, Sprint PCS,  Nextel, Bell Mobility (Canada) , Roger's AT&T (Canada),  Vodafone in Europe, BT in UK, NTT DoCoMo (Japan), etc.

While wireless network provides true mobility, you may utilize a wireline network for those mobile users who need occasion connection from hotels, motels or airport lounges of airline's regular patrons. Some of these airports are now offering wireless LAN connectivity to wireline backend networks.