Mobile technology is a collective term used to describe the various types of cellular communication technology. Mobile CDMA technology has evolved quite rapidly over the past few years. Since the beginning of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a cellular phone, GPS navigation system, an embedded web browser, and Instant Messenger client, and a hand-held video gaming system. Many experts argue that the future of computer technology rests in mobile/wireless computing.
The United States Military is now using Mobile technology as a tool for information dissemination and collection in the battlefield arena. "Numerous agencies including the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Intelligence community, and law enforcement are utilizing mobile technology are utilizing mobile technology for information management." [1]
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One of the most important features in the 4G mobile networks is the domination of high-speed packet transmissions or burst traffic in the channels. The same codes used in the 2G-3G networks will be applied to future 4G mobile or wireless networks, the detection of very short bursts will be a serious problem due to their very poor partial correlation properties. Recent study has indicated that traditional multi-layer network architecture based on the OSI model may not be well suited for 4G mobile network, where transactions of short packets will be the major part of the traffic in the channels. As the packets from different mobiles carry completely different channel characteristics, the receiver should execute all necessary algorithms, such as channel estimation, interactions with all upper layers and so on, within a very short time to make the detections of each packet flawless and even to reduce the clutter of traffic.
There are many types of Smartphone operating systems available, including: Symbian, Android, Blackberry, WebOS, Apple iOS, Windows Mobile Professional (touch screen), Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch screen) and Bada OS. Among the most popular are the Apple iPhone, and the newest - Android. Android is a mobile operating system (OS) developed by Google. Android is the first completely open source mobile OS, meaning that it is free to any cell phone carrier. The Apple iPhone, which has several OSs like the 3G and 3G S, is the most popular smart phone at this time, because of its customizable OS which you can use to download applications ("apps") made by Apple like games, GPS, Utilities, and other tools. Any user can also create their own Apps and publish them to Apple's App Store. The Palm Pre using WebOS has functionality over the Internet and is able to support Internet-based programming languages such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. The BlackBerry RIM is a SmartPhone that has a multimedia player and third-party software installation. The Windows Mobile Professional Smartphones (Pocket PC or Windows Mobile PDA) are like that of a PDA and have touchscreen capabilities. The Windows Mobile Standard does not have a touch screen but uses a trackball, touchpad, rockers, etc.
Symbian is the original smartphone OS, with the richest history and the largest marketshare. Although no single Symbian device has sold as many units as the iPhone, Nokia and other manufacturers (currently including Sony Ericsson and Samsung, and previously Motorola) release a wide variety of Symbian models every year which gives Symbian the greatest marketshare.
There will be a hit to file sharing, the normal web surfer would want to look at a new web page every minute or so at 100kbs you could get your page pretty quickly. Because of the changes to the security of wireless networks you will not be able to do huge file transfers because the service providers want to cut down on channel hogging. AT&T claimed that they would ban any of their users that they caught using "peer-to-peer" (P2P) file sharing applications on their 3G network. It then became apparent that it would keep any of their users from using their iTunes programs. The users would then be forced to find a Wi-Fi hotspot in order to be able to download their music. The limitations of wireless networking will not be cured by 4G, as there are simply too many fundamental differences between wireless networking and other means of Internet access. If wireless vendors do not realize these differences and bandwidth limitations, future wireless customers will find themselves quite disappointed and the market will suffer quite a setback.
The next generation of smartphones is going to be context-aware, taking advantage of the growing availability of embedded physical sensors and data exchange capabilities. One of the main features applying to this is that the phones are going to start keeping track of your personal data, but adapt to anticipate the information you will need based on your intentions. There are going to be all-new applications coming out with the new phones, one of which is an X-Ray device that reveals information about any location at which you point your phone. One thing companies are developing software to take advantage of more accurate location-sensing data. How they described it was as wanting to make the phone a virtual mouse able to click the real world. An example of this is where you can point the phone's camera while having the live feed open and it will show text with the building and saving the location of the building for future use.
Along with the future of a smart phone comes the future of another device. Omnitouch is a device in which applications can be viewed and used on your hand, arm, wall, desk, or any other everyday surface. The device uses a sensor touch interface, which enables the user to access all the functions through the use of finger touch. It was developed at Carnegie-Mellon. This device uses a projection camera which is worn on the person's shoulder, with no other actual controls other than your fingers. A new path of mobile technology will hopefully branch off from OmniTouch.