Mobile Computing - The Age of Handeld Devices Research Paper

Mobile Computing - The Age of Handeld Devices - Research Paper Example It is unimaginable today to think the kind of dependency people have on smart phones in this time and age. Cell phones are no longer a luxury. They are treated as a common man’s complete answer to his emailing, social-networking, communicating, profiling and corporate needs. From simple calls to text messages when it was launched, today cell phones can do hundreds of other vital tasks. It has woven the younger generation into complete interconnectivity and keeps the older generation well informed and updated. In simple words, mobile computing makes use of different high technology gadgets and devices, it has helped make communication easy and the lives of people more convenient by keeping them well informed about the current happenings. (Talukdar, 2010 ) Before we delve further into the ways in which mobile computing has made life easy, lets take a look at a short history of mobile computing. Mobile computing hit of during the 1990s. That was when laptops were a rising phenome non. They had become the mainstream device which people used to keep with them to keep everyone connected to each other. That was just the beginning as since then innumerable number of devices have ventured into the market that have brought about a sense of wireless communication and have given an extra edge to everyone’s communication dilemma. Communication has become a very powerful entity today in both personal and professional lives. Before mobile computing could be introduced in the market of wireless business, communication was largely dependent on static networks. At that time, radio transmitters used to operate from a stable base. The transmitters had large antennas which used to connect. An example would be two way radios that police and army men used back then. Today, everyone has access to infinite number of high end devices which can easily connect to the internet. These devices are offered by different technology companies and are installed with Bluetooth, wirele ss cards, or infra red interfaces. Since it started in 1990s, mobile computing has evolved very rapidly and persistently. It has become so convenient and so much in sync with everyone’s daily lives that it is difficult to dis-associate with it in any part of the world. The convenience in wireless connectivity is not a rare phenomenon and is being used by everyone. Hundreds of other solutions are being offered by different mobile computing companies. The mobile phones are fully embedded with features which allow the user to access the internet wirelessly, through the Bluetooth interfaces or wireless cards. Smart-phones are the in-thing. Apple and Blackberry have a huge role to play in the way smartphones integrated themselves in the mainstream life of people. Blackberry’s introduction of BBM, a free messaging service of BB users took the world by storm. Friends, families, relatives rush to buy blackberry because of this service. It has made communication on the go so ea sy to the point of turning it into a full blown addiction. Iphone has made its way into the world of touch interface mobile computing with a storm. It all started off with the ipods and the next thing became the iphone, a touch based smart phone with all the glamor and luxury of owning a mobile computing device. The personal digital assistants and modern laptops similarly have also become the commonly used gadgets. These