31-01-2009, 12:40 AM
The popularity of mobile computing and communication devices can be traced to their ability to deliver information to users when needed. Users want ubiquitous access to information and applications from the device at hand, plus they want to access and update this information on the fly.
A long-standing obstacle to the advancement of ubiquitous computing has been the lack of a generalized synchronization protocol. Until recently, the available synchronization protocols were proprietary, vendor-specific, and supported synchronization only on selected transports, implemented on a selected subset of devices, and able to access a small set of net-worked data. This has slowed development in the area of mobile computing and been a common source of frustration for users, device manufacturers, service providers, and application developers. SyncML is a new industry initiative to develop and promote a single, common data synchronization protocol that can be used industry-wide. Driving the initiative are Ericsson, IBM, Lotus, Motorola, Nokia, among others.
SyncML is intended as a common language that enables smooth, efficient synchronization of personal and business information over fixed or mobile networks. Its aim is to facilitate the synchronization of networked information with various devices running SyncML-compatible applications. As the first universal synchronization protocol, SyncML offers true freedom to users of mobile devices by allowing them to send and receive up-to-date information between their mobile applications and their office or home-based systems regardless of the platform, manufacturer, or application. SyncML leverages Extensible Markup Language (XML), making SyncML a truly future-proof platform.
