For many application developers, the fastest, easiest way to introduce a
mobile solution was to "chop down" an existing Web-based application. Users
that had a device with a browser could then access the applications. However,
because the resulting applications were not designed for the navigation
capabilities of a mobile device or the smaller bandwidth, the user experience
suffered. These problems can be solved by using a thick client instead of a
thin client.
With a thin client, there is nothing running on the device except the
presentation. All the content is on the host. The data, along with the rules
to display it, are sent down and rendered on the local machine. Everything is
done on the server; every request requires going back to the host. With a
thick client, ... (more)