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Kate Gerwig, Editorial Director
GSM stands for Global Systems for Mobile communications. It is a digital cellular technology for carrying voice traffic on operator networks. The draw to GSM is its ubiquity around the globe, which allows users of GSM phones to make calls in virtually any country. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is packet switching technology for GSM networks. Where GSM handles the voice traffic, GPRS handles the data traffic. It is the technology that allows a mobile phone to connect to the Internet. Its efficiency comes from its ability to use the network only when data needs to be sent, as opposed to holding a continuous connection to the Internet like a PC modem does. To put the technology generations in context, GSM is 2G, GPRS is 2.5G and EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) is 3G -- and is also the future evolution of the GSM/GPRS technology. What will 3G (EDGE) offer that GSM/GPRS cannot? Higher data speeds, 384 kbps or higher for EDGE compared to only 115 kbps for GPRS, which will enable enhanced applications like two-way video transmission and location-based services as well as an overall better experience with data applications.
WML (Wireless Markup Language) is a scripting language that requires less memory and processing power from Web browsers than that demanded by content created with HTML, making WML content more friendly to wide-area wireless networks and mobile devices.
The benefit that converged mobile devices (smartphones), such as the Handspring Treo 600, Palm Tungsten W or a Microsoft Smartphone-based device like the Motorola MPX 200, hold over traditional PDAs often comes down to user preference. Does the user prefer to carry an all-in-one device that can act as their mobile phone and personal organizer, or a mobile phone and a PDA that are specifically designed for their respective uses? There are desirable draws that come from a device that integrates voice and data functionality into a single form factor, such as the ability to call a number from the address book, which contains all your contacts, not just the ones that you had time to key in with the keypad, because smartphones can be synchronized with PCs. Also, because smartphones match an evolved operating platform like the Palm OS, Symbian, Linux or Windows Mobile to a wirelessly-enabled mobile device that can connect to the Web, they represent a platform that companies can mobilize corporate applications, allowing users to access the most up-to-date data available while in the field. Traditional mobile phones based on proprietary operating systems with screens that are often too small to display meaningful data, as well as PDAs without wireless access do not always have the full compliment of technologies to make them effective tools for mobile data.
This was first published in December 2003