Mobile communications have permeated the globe in both business and social cultures. In only a few short years, Japan alone has had more than ten million subscribers enter the mobile market. Such explosive popularity is an indication of a strong commercial demand for communications in both the tethered and tetherless environments.

Accompanying the vibrant growth in mobile communications is the growth in multimedia communications, including the Internet. Mobile and multimedia communications technologies are merging, making mobile computing a key phrase in the coming advanced information communication era. The growth in these dynamic industries shows that a change in our chosen method of communications is already well advanced. Reading e-mail and connecting to various information feeds have already become a part of daily business activities.

We are trying to grasp the overall picture of mobile computing. Its shape and form are just starting to appear as personal digital assistants (PDA), handheld personal computers (HPC), wireless data communication services, and commercial software designed for mobile environments. We are at the cusp of vast popularization of “computers-on-the-go.”

“Any time Anywhere Computing” provides the reader with an understandable explanation of the current developments and commercialization of mobile computing. The core technologies and applications needed to understand the industry are comprehensively addressed. The book emphasizes three infrastructures: (1) wireless communication network infrastructure, (2) terminal devices (or ”computers-on-the-go”), and (3) software middleware and architectures that support wireless and mobile computing.