Merits

The benefits of automating data collection applications with mobile computing are the reduction of hard and soft costs, enhancement of revenue potential, and a distinct competitive advantage through:

Improving the data collection process

Improving data accuracy

Reducing paperwork

Enforcing collection of more complete information

Facilitating collection of more useful information

Eliminating redundant data entry

Reducing administrative costs

Reducing billing errors

Reducing data backlog

Improving information flow

Allowing faster adaptation to changing business conditions

Increasing responsiveness and customer satisfaction

Providing access to previously unavailable information

Demerits

The demerits of the mobile computing are discussed as follows:

Information access via a mobile device is plagued by low available bandwidth, poor connection maintenance, poor security, and addressing problems. Unlike their wired counterparts, design of software for mobile devices must consider resource limitation, battery power and display size. Consequently, new hardware and software techniques must be developed. For example, applications need to be highly optimized for space, in order to fit in the limited memory on the mobile devices.

Mobility brings additional uncertainties, as well as opportunities to provide new services and supplementary information to users in the locations where they find themselves. In general, most application software, operating systems, and network infrastructures are intended for more conventional environments, and so the mobile, wireless user has great difficulty exploiting the computational infrastructure as fully as he or she might. There is an emerging consensus among researchers that a new architecture and dynamic infrastructure is an appropriate way to address this problem.

Day by day as the standard of the mobile computing is increasing the boons of mobile computing are changing to banes. Eg: The most deadly terrorist attack occurred on sept 11, 2001.

Ø Applications
New technical and application developments have established that mobile systems can be a cost-effective, efficient, and productive solution in several different types of application environments. They are:- a new generation of satellites, especially Low-Earth Orbit systems (LEOS) are under development with the Internet in mind. Companies like Teledesic and Orbcomm are actively promoting Internet access.

Vertical industries where mobile technology has already been successfully adopted include Consumer Goods, Delivery and Route Sales, Government, Healthcare, Market Research, Pharmaceuticals, Transportation, and Utilities.

Consumer Goods. Typical applications include inventory, merchandising, order entry, and sales automation. Features found in these applications usually provide access to stock and pricing information, monitor promotions, and perform shelf space analysis including number of facings and product age. Customer detail helps reps to act more as consultants than order takers.

Delivery & Route Sales. With fierce competition and an increasing inventory, having timely and accurate information is more important than ever.

Government. Applications center around assessments, inspections, and work orders. Most of these applications involve auditing some sort of facility or process (food service, restaurant, nursing home, child care, schools, commercial and residential buildings).

Healthcare. The focus in this industry has been on automating patient records, medication dispension, and sample collection. A common goal is to leverage mobile computing in the implementation of positive patient identification.

Market Research. Automating the survey process has enabled these companies to get their data more accurately and quickly while being able to customize their queries at will.

Pharmaceuticals. In addition to the reps need to perform account management and call reporting functions, the FDA’s requirement for physician signatures for all drug samples dispensed was an added complication that was eliminated through the use of mobile technology.

Transportation. Transforming freight damage inspections from paper to mobile computing greatly expedites the process and reduces costs by providing on-line pre-shipment inspections. This technology also offers a more efficient means of storing and transmitting maintenance inspection reports. In conjunction with GPS (global positioning systems), mobile computing allows companies to provide better customer service by being continually aware of exactly where any given shipment is when in transit.

Utilities. Eliminating the rekeying of data and providing a means to perform on site analysis are instrumental to an industry that is required to perform inspections on a routine basis.

Conclusion

Mobile computing is rapidly becoming popular, and user demand for useful wireless applications is increasing.

Additionally, this paper shows how these behavioral extensions serve as a powerful abstraction for practical systems.

In this paper, we have looked at issues related to portable devices, merits, demerits and applications in mobile environment.

Because of the banes of mobile computing the security level should be improved.

Bibilography

Terri Watson. : Application design for wireless computing.

Application design for wireless computing : M-Mail: A Case Study of Dynamic Application Partitioning in Mobile Computing

Christine Julien and Gruia-Catalin Roman : Active Coordination in Ad Hoc Networks

Raymond J. Brunsting : Quality of Service Issues in Wireless Networks