Windows Mobile Development: Deploy to device WITHOUT phone service

Question

We are looking into developing a windws mobile app for data collection. We are considering deploying to a device without phone service - just a Windows phone but no phone service. We are considering a phone largely due to its small form-factor. The data does not need to be uploaded in real-time. It can be at the end of the day. Data will be uploaded to the server using WiFi or bluetooth.

If we get a mobile device and do not activate the phone, what functionality will we be missing? If the device has GPS, the GPS portion of the phone should still work, right? Assuming the GPS is chip-based, not a tower-based location. Any thoughts on this?

There is the possibility this may be deployed to a tablet PC but that may be cost prohibitive.

Answer 1

If you don't activate the phone, you will be missing the phone functionality and nothing else. GPS will still work if it's chip-based, but almost certainly not if it's tower-based (although it might).

However, you definitely want to test this out on at least one device. I had a WinMo smartphone a couple of years ago (with the smartphone version of WinMo, as opposed to the PDA version), and when I canceled the phone service I was unable to access the device at all - it required a valid SIMM card to function.

Answer 2

I use my SonyEricsson Xperia X1 without a SIM card, and it works fine. GPS and WIFI etc are all operational.

Of course, you could use an iPac or other Pocket PC, which provides the same programming APIs as the Smartphone platform but without the phone by design.

Answer 3

Later versions of Windows Mobile (IIRC 6 and above) allow you to use the phone o/s without a valid sim card. Anything to do with the GSM radio won't be present without a valid sim of course. GPS should still work, as should WLAN and BT.