Technology Trends Favor Thick Clients for User-Carried Wireless Devices

Thad Starner

Slightly edited version published as "Thick Clients for Personal Wireless Devices" in IEEE Computer 35(1), January 2002, pp. 133-135

Abstract: A thin client approach to mobile computing pushes as many services as possible on a remote server. However, as will be shown, technology trends indicate that an easy route to improving thin client functionality is to ``thicken'' the client through addition of disk storage, CPU, and RAM. Thus, thin clients will rapidly become multi-purpose thick clients. With time, users may come to consider their mobile system as their primary general-purpose computing device, with their most used files maintained on the mobile system and with desktop systems used primarily for larger displays, keyboards, and other non-mobile interfaces.

Keywords: Thin clients, thick clients, technology trends, mobile devices, wearable computers

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