A mobile database is a database that can be connected to by a mobile computing device over a mobile network. The client and server have wireless connections. A cache is maintained to hold frequent data and transactions so that they are not lost due to connection failure. A database is a structured way to organize information. This could be a list of contacts, price information or distance traveled.
The use of laptops, mobiles, and PDAs is increasing and likely to increase in the future with more and more applications residing in the mobile systems. While those same analysts can't tell us exactly which applications will be the most popular, it is clear that a large percentage will require the use of a database of some sort.
Many applications such as databases would require the ability to download information from an information repository and operate on this information even when out of range or disconnected.
An example of this is a mobile workforce. In this scenario, the user would require to access and update information, from files in the home directories on a server or customer records from a database. This type of access and workload generated by such users is different from the traditional
