Today I'm facing somewhat of a dilemma.    I have a customer that is needing the fastest possible access to a bunch of business objects called from a mobile application.

We're talking looking up products in a catalogue moving stock around between locations.

In my heart I want to-do this all with web services as I crave the simplicity of changing this app from a WIFI based LAN application to something that I can deliver over GPRS/3G with no hassle.

However my head is telling me that web-services and their XML payload (uncompressed) adds a significant over head.   Tomorrow its time for a speed trial....