Thread: Protocols to transfer files

Not so long ago, the 'hand phone' was a pretty expensive device and only the elite could get their hands on one. There were very few service providers and the calling rates were not affordable for everyone. As the market opened up, 'cheap' mobile phones became available even to the common man. Affordability is one of the key factors for the success of the mobile phone market -- it made everybody a gadget freak and turned cell phones into a part of our daily lives.

When consumers looked at a mobile device, they saw much more than just a mobile phone. The end users not expected more features in their mobiles and, to take this market to the next level, mobile phone manufacturers started adding more features like a camera, MP3 players, Internet connectivity, and so on. Software standards needed to be established for such extensions so that life for the user became simpler.



Protocols like Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) and Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) evolved to support gadgets communicating with PCs to transfer images and media files in a standard way. Support for such protocols is inbuilt into the operating system or provided by the gadget manufacturers. Linux requires certain libraries to be installed to support these protocol extensions.