Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

1.1 WHAT IS ‘NEXT GENERATION’ ANYHOW?

In a moment, we shall take a fictional tour in the day of a life of a mobile user. This will largely serve to illustrate what is meant by wireless applications within the context of this book. Before that, what do I mean by ‘Next Generation’, as used in the title of the book? In the first edition, I explained how a large number of technologies were going through significant ‘upgrades’ to newer versions. The most anticipated at the time was the evolution of mobile networks to their Third Generation, called 3G. Chapter 12 explains what 3G means, but Next Generation is more than just 3G. We can build mobile services using a mixture of technologies, many of which have also evolved. For example, we hear a lot about the so-called ‘Web 2.0’. This book also talks a lot about these technologies, too.

What I have come to realise is that apart from versioning of specifications, when we need precise referencing and indexing of information, the concept of generations in mobile technology has become increasingly meaningless. This is because technological solutions use a variety of evolving technologies and it is difficult to talk about discrete versions in relation to the whole solution. The generational idea, like everything ‘2.0’ these days, gets used a lot by marketers and publicists to convey ‘newness’ and thereby generate interest in new products. Given that some of these themes, like Web 2.0, have become important, I have included some of them in this ...