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Application Delivery

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Applications on Windows Mobile™-based Smartphone and Windows Mobile™-based Pocket PC can be downloaded and installed through the following mechanisms:

  • Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer   The user can browse a corporate network or the Internet to find a download site and select a hyperlink to download an installation file. The downloaded file will be automatically installed and then removed to conserve space.

  • Microsoft ActiveSync   Provides synchronization services between a desktop computer and the mobile device, allowing the user to take personal information wherever he or she goes by requiring that a partnership be created between the computer and the device. A setup application runs on the desktop PC and registers an application to be installed on the docked device. A device can be docked in the cradle using a universal serial bus (USB) or serial cable, or a device can be connected to its host computer through a network Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection. The Application Manager in ActiveSync sends the .cab file to the device by using the remote capabilities of the remote API (RAPI) interface and triggers the device's CAB Installer.

    ActiveSync supports a set of APIs that allow applications running on the desktop computer to invoke functions directly on the mobile device. These remote APIs (RAPIs) allow desktop computer applications to manage the device remotely. For more information about RAPI, see Microsoft MSDN and the Pocket PC Developer's Reference.

  • **E-mail/SMS   **An e-mail message or a Short Message Service (SMS) message can contain a link that a user can select, at which point Pocket Internet Explorer downloads the file. Alternatively, a .cab file can be attached to an e-mail message; when the user runs the attachment the file is passed to the CAB Installer.

  • **SI/SL   **For Smartphone, the operator can send Service Indication (SI) and Service Loading (SL) messages through a Push Proxy Gateway to the device. Smartphone places these special-case SMS messages in the user's Inbox. In the case of an SI message, the user selects a link so that Pocket Internet Explorer receives the URL and downloads the file. For SL messages, the device attempts to cache the content on the device. If the caching is successful, a message is placed in the user's Inbox. From there, the user can select a link to activate the downloaded file.

  • Storage card   Applications and/or data can be distributed on a variety of storage cards including MultiMedia Card (MMC), SD, and CompactFlash (CF) that are inserted into the device. Smartphone can automatically start an installation script if the storage card includes an Autorun file and the AutoRun security policy enables Autorun files on the device. For more information about the AutoRun security policy, see
    Security Policies and Roles.

The following diagram illustrates the process flow for Smartphone for the different application delivery mechanisms.

See Also

Application Management for Windows Mobile Devices | Provisioning OTA Through a WAP Push | Configuring the Registry OTA Example

Last updated on Friday, April 22, 2005

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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