Sideloading

Sideloading is a term used in Internet culture, similar to "upload" and "download", but in reference to the process of transferring data between a mobile device and a computer, or, less often, between two computers. By matter of common usage behaviour, sideloading typically refers to the transfer via a USB connection.

Uses

Sideloading is a common method of data transfer to mobile devices such as cellphones, portable media players, and PDAs. A particularly significant step in the popularization of sideloading was triggered by the success of Apple iPods, which achieves iTunes sync with the device over a USB cable/dock. In the case of cellphones, sideloading is largely preferred by users as a cost-free alternative of loading music to over-the-air purchases from the wireless carriers' stores. Sideloading particularly over a standardized USB (Micro-USB) connection was, moreover, an agreement come to by the OMTP in late 2007 [http://www.omtp.org/Publications/Display.aspx?Id=08d2e4e3-ebee-407c-a51b-94057e7f7b19"Local Connectivity: Data Connectivity"] , OMTP, omtp.org, September 17, 2007] . On the other hand, with digital cameras the use of an external card reader on SD/MMC/CompactFlash has traditionally been more common because USB connectivity was not originally offered--this is now changing as USB integration increases in designs. The use of the external card reader may or may not constitute sideloading, with definitions varying amongst online sources and research firms such as Gartner and M:Metrics. amounts to sideloading is not well defined, as sideloading is a term which began in internet culture.

peed

Transfer performance of USB sideloading varies greatly, depending on the USB version supported, and further still by the actual engineering implementation of the USB controller. USB is available in Low-Speed, Full-Speed, and Hi-Speed levels, with High-Speed USB transferring up to 480Mbit/s (60MB/s). However, the majority of cellphones as of the time of writing of this article are Full-Speed USB. Of the mobile products supporting USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, the actual sideloading performance usually ranges between 1-5MB/s. However, the popular BlackBerry cellphones by RIM and the iPods by Apple distance themselves at higher performing speeds of roughly 15.7MB/s and 9.6MB/s, respectively [http://bilyxiao.com/2008/06/deathly-slow-phones/ "Deathly Slow Phones"] , Blog of Bily Xiao, bilyxiao.com, August 6, 2008] [http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=203101718 "Under the Hood: Blackberry wins handset data-rate bakeoff"] , EETimes, eetimes.com, November 11, 2007] .

As media file sizes and consumer usage of them on mobile devices continue to grow, a well performing high bandwidth sideloading solution also becomes increasingly important.

References