Editing Mobile device (section)

==Characteristics==
Device mobility can be viewed in the context of several qualities:<ref name="Poslad">{{cite book|last=Poslad|first=Stefan|title=Ubiquitous Computing Smart Devices, Smart Environments, and Smart Interaction|publisher=Wiley|year=2009|isbn=978-0-470-03560-3|url=http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/people/stefan/ubicom/index.html|access-date=January 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210111324/http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/people/stefan/ubicom/index.html|archive-date=December 10, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Physical dimensions and weight
* Whether the device is mobile or some kind of host to which it is attached is mobile
* What kind of host devices it can be bound with
* How devices communicate with a host
* When mobility occurs

Strictly speaking, many so-called mobile devices are not mobile. It is the host that is mobile, i.e., a mobile human host carries a non-mobile [[Mobile operating system|smartphone]] device. An example of a true mobile computing device, where the device itself is mobile, is a [[robot]]. Another example is an [[autonomous vehicle]].

There are three basic ways mobile devices can be physically bound to mobile hosts:

* Accompanied,
* Surface-mounted, or
* Embedded into the fabric of a host, e.g., an embedded controller in a host device.

Accompanied refers to an object being loosely bound and accompanying a mobile host, e.g., a smartphone can be carried in a bag or pocket but can easily be misplaced.<ref name="Poslad"/> Hence, mobile hosts with embedded devices such as an [[autonomous vehicle]] can appear larger than pocket-sized.

The most common size of a mobile computing device is pocket-sized, but other sizes for mobile devices exist. [[Mark Weiser]], known as the father of [[ubiquitous computing]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/01/business/mark-weiser-a-leading-computer-visionary-dies-at-46.html|title=Mark Weiser, a Leading Computer Visionary, Dies at 46|last=Markoff|first=John|date=May 1, 1999|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 9, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=April 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411133322/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/01/business/mark-weiser-a-leading-computer-visionary-dies-at-46.html|url-status=live}}</ref> referred to device sizes that are tab-sized, pad, and board sized,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Weiser|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Weiser|title=The Computer for the Twenty-First Century|year=1991|journal=[[Scientific American]]|volume=265|issue=3|pages=94–104|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0991-94}}</ref> where ''tabs'' are defined as accompanied or wearable centimeter-sized devices, e.g. [[smartphones]], [[phablets]] and [[tablet computer|tablets]] are defined as hand-held decimeter-sized devices. If one changes the form of the mobile devices in terms of being non-planar, one can also have skin devices and tiny dust-sized devices.<ref name="Poslad"/>

''Dust'' refers to miniaturized devices without direct [[Human–computer interaction|HCI]] interfaces, e.g., micro-electromechanical systems ([[Microelectromechanical systems|MEMS]]), ranging from nanometers through micrometers to millimeters. See also [[Smart dust]]. ''Skin'': fabrics based upon light emitting and conductive polymers and organic computer devices. These can be formed into more flexible non-planar display surfaces and products such as clothes and curtains, see [[OLED display]]. Also, see [[smart device]].

Although mobility is often regarded as synonymous with having wireless connectivity, these terms are different. Not all network access by mobile users, applications, and devices needs to be via [[wireless network]]s and vice versa. Wireless access devices can be static and mobile users can move between wired and wireless hotspots such as in Internet cafés.<ref name="Poslad"/> Some mobile devices can be used as [[mobile Internet device]]s to access the Internet while moving, but they do not need to do this and many phone functions or applications are still operational even while disconnected from the [[Internet]].

What makes the mobile device unique compared to other technologies is the inherent flexibility in the hardware and software. Flexible applications include video chat, web browsing, payment systems, near field communication, audio recording etc.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Beddall-Hill, Nicola|author2=Jabbar, Abdul|author3=Al Shehri, Saleh|name-list-style=amp|year=2011|title=Social Mobile Devices as Tools for Qualitative Research in Education: iPhones and iPads in Ethnography, Interviewing, and Design-Based Research|journal=Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology|volume=7|issue=1|pages=67–90|issn=1948-075X|url=http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/10507/|access-date=January 21, 2015|archive-date=June 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170618003445/http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/10507/|url-status=live}}</ref> As mobile devices become ubiquitous, there will be an increase of services which include the use of the [[Cloud computing|cloud]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Characteristics of Mobility in Wireless Networking|url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/characteristics-of-mobility-in-wireless-networking.html|journal=Lyna Griffin|access-date=February 10, 2023|archive-date=February 10, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210040457/https://study.com/academy/lesson/characteristics-of-mobility-in-wireless-networking.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Although a common form of mobile device, a smartphone, has a display, another perhaps even more common form of smart computing device, the [[smart card]], e.g., used as a bank card or travel card, does not have a display. This mobile device often has a [[Central processing unit|CPU]] and memory but needs to connect or be inserted into a reader to display its internal data or state.