Mobile Computing and Social Networks Term Paper
Bradley Wallace
Strayer University
Professor Mark Cohen
CIS-500
December 14 2014

Mobile computing has rapidly evolved for the last two decades with the use of wireless technology making the location irrelevant and increasing the opportunities for business to streamline business processes, reduce operational processing times and provide better customer service. Mobile revolution has also forced many industries to reengineer their business processes to accommodate the many mobile devices. Mobile computing and social networks are part of the daily lives of millions of Americans. 42% of American adults own a mobile and tablet computing device. “Additional research shows that about three quarters of U.S. adults are online, with about 66% of them using social networking sites” (Brenner, 2012). Specific methods for how IT departments and mobile app developers and designers can decide on supporting different mobile platforms like the Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Windows Phone, or Android supported smartphones and tablets will be discussed. Other topics addressed in this paper include the issue of “high availability” for mobile app users’
Based on these considerations organizations and businesses are nowadays focusing on the implementation of these applications, while replacing their desktop platforms to the mobile devices (Shih, et.al. n.d). “On the other hand, it is also observed that, these applications may also enhance various risks and vulnerabilities, regarding the security and confidentiality of customer’s and organizational information. In this scenario, it is necessary for the organizations to introduce and implement effective strategies in order to ensure the integrity of their organizational operations” (Kalil, 2009). Lastly this paper incorporates the brief discussion on the efficiency and effectiveness of mobile based applications in the business field. Moreover, the benefits of these applications are also incorporated in the proceeding paper.
Assess the effectiveness and efficiency mobile-based applications provide to capture geolocation data and customer data, and quickly upload to a processing server without users having to use a desktop system. Mobile technology has evolved so rapidly that the technological advancement in the effectiveness, efficiency and availability of the mobile devices to the internet and smartphone capabilities have significantly enhanced the usage, capabilities and functionality of mobile based applications. Geolocation is a technology which uses the data accessed from an individual’s computer or mobile devise to find his / her physical location. This is one of the popular technology in social networking giving the capacity to let our friends and family know where we are, also to identify popular or convenient places close to physical locations even remote location like restaurants, gas stations, shopping malls and post offices.
In the past most of the people used to have pulled the maps like MapQuest, Google Maps to get the directions from one place to other place and print those directions and they were on their way but now the experience is lot better with the mobile phones or smartphones which gets your current locations automatically and based on the relevant data you provide the applications can guide you to travel from one place to other place as you want to reach. These applications are able to perform with a GPS chip installed into the device. Therefore GPS chip uses satellite data to find your exact current position. In the event of interference or service unavailability then the GPS chip will use the information from the cell towers to triangulate the approximate location of the device. These apps efficiency is dependent on service availability. Something simple as driving through a heavy rain storm, loud cover, and heavy trees can hinder the GPS from communicating with the satellite. The capabilities of mobile