Mobile to PC Connectivity – It’s how it handles the Interaction that Counts

In looking at the mobile phone space, I continue to find evidence that it’s not how well the mobile phone works (making calls, surfing the web, etc) that counts, but how well the mobile phone plays with the PC and associated servers. I came across an example today called Skyward Mobile which lets users run applications on phones that may not be well adapted to the application. Some applications only run on the top range of phones and typically they are the latest and greatest. Skyward uses the PC to Mobile connection to expand the number of phones and application can run on. It does this by downloading from the PC additional software or applets to phones that don’t have the full capability required by the application.

A general search through the web reveals many examples of “Over the Air” wireless connectivity between mobile phone and PC. In this Craigslist entry shows the Nokia N95 as having “over the air synchronization”. As functions become standard on commercial products, they are ripe for implementation in virtual instrumentation systems, because the cost is low and the technology is sufficiently mature.

Over the Air download to a mobile phone from a PC is fast on its way to becoming the standard. In this article the author describes the changing consumer electronics landscape and shows how important mobile phone to PC connectivity will be. Updating the mobile phone’s application and even the hardware configuration will be done over the air.

Virtual Instrumentation can take advantage of this technology giving way to unwired solutions that can stay up to date through over the air downloads. Handheld devices can collect the data, and utilize the storage capabilities of PCs and servers. By shrinking the size of the data collection equipment (down to the size of a mobile phone), more measurements could be made and more experiments run.

Best regards,
Hall T.