There is a jungle of concepts used in the context of mobile browsing, originating from both the IT and telecom worlds. The purpose of the list below is to clarify some of the most frequently used concepts.

Fixed internet (wireline internet) refers to ordinary broadband internet access. It is a term originating from the telecom industry.

Mobile internet (wireless internet) is a term from the old WAP era and is still in use. It basically refers to internet content and services available to mobile devices. However, it is a bit misleading because it makes you think of mobile internet as a domain separate from the fixed internet.

The concept mobile application is used in two ways. It can refer to an access agnostic application or it can refer to an application that entirely, or partly, resides in a mobile device. Such an application is always associated with logic, and not just presentation. The content and media is always adapted to the mobile device.

A mobile internet application is a type of mobile application that has a server side application logic, as well as content, residing on the internet.

An internet mobile application is basically the same as a mobile internet application, but the concept shows more clearly that the mobile internet is not an entity separate from the fixed internet. It refers to applications adapting the content/media to the mobile device in an end-to-end scenario. The associated business model is the open garden model.

The concept mobile web browsing signifies accessing the content on web pages using a mobile device. In this context, the word "web" is usually associated with internet web pages accessed using a mobile device (for content and services not adapted for mobiles), rather than technology. But in some cases "web" can refer to the web technology, such as using HTTP and mark-up languages. In this case we are talking about content and services adapted to mobile devices using web technology. Another term for this is mobile browsing.

Mobile browsing is the UI technology for mobiles in the context of thin clients. The content is directly adapted to the mobile device. Mobile browsing is a type of mobile web browsing and from a technology aspect the same as mobile web browsing.

Internet made mobile is a new concept coined as a result of the dotMobi initiative. It means the same thing as mobile internet but shows more clearly that the internet referred to is the same as the fixed internet.

The client-server model is widely used, especially in the context of fat/thick clients (see below), such as Java ME Midlets. To better describe mobile browsing we introduce the client-server-infrastructure service model, illustrated in the figure below. The client resides in the mobile, the server on the internet, and the infrastructure in the operator's network. The figure below gives examples of different types of interactions and the corresponding standard is indicated within brackets. Note that in this model, responses to the client are always a result of an action taken by the client itself. This means for instance that the server can only initiate a request to the client via the mobile infrastructure (for example WAP Push, MMS and SMS, non-IMS based).

Clients are generally divided between fat clients, such as Java ME Midlets, and thin clients, such as general browsers.
A fat client performs the bulk of any data processing itself. This means typically that the main business logic resides in the client. A fat client is usually tightly coupled to the infrastructure and the server side (via for instance an IMS application). In the context of mobile browsing, fat clients are typically Java ME Midlet applications using JSR API standards implemented in the mobile platform. A drawback with fat clients is that they need regular software updates, handled/managed by the end-user, and occupy memory space if there are too may of them, which is a scarce resource.

A thin client relies on resources on the server side and is usually loosely coupled to the server (contrary to a fat client). Thin clients residing in the mobile are, besides mobile browsers, for instance messaging clients and network media players. The business logic is provided by the server-side and telecom services by the telecom infrastructure, using Parlay X web services, or JSR standards for Java EE such as JSR 212 for server side messaging. By using thin clients you avoid installations, and consequent updates of software on the mobile, and reduce memory and CPU consumption.