4 mobile technologies Apple and Google need to get right

While rumors are again flowing over what the next iPhone or Galaxy S smartphone will bring, it’s easy to forget that a bunch of mobile technologies remain half-baked in today’s smartphones and tablets.

Sure, I’d love if the predicted Apple iPhone 5S’s screen were truly larger and easier to read, and the idea of copying the iPod Touch’s cornucopia of colors is attractive (I’ll take blue, thank you). Ditto with the predicted Samsung Galaxy IV’s supposed “unbreakable” screen and included stylus, which shows a lot of promise in the Galaxy Note II. But those are largely cosmetic changes taken from existing products.

[ How the iPod Touch is reinventing retail transactions. ]

What I’d really like is for some of the touted features of 2011 and 2012 to work better — a lot better.

1. Make NFC interoperable
Near-field communication chips for very short-range wireless connections are one of Google’s “big deal” technologies for Android, deployed in its Nexus 4 and in Android devices from Samsung and HTC, among others. Research in Motion jumped on the NFC bandwagon as well in some models in its poorly selling BlackBerry 7 lineup, such as the Bold 9900. But NFC is deployed in a proprietary manner, so you can “bump” devices for sharing only if they’re from the same manufacturer. Its advertised use — easy sharing — is just a toy capability.

Any sharing technology of consequence needs to be standardized and openly available. NFC should work like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. When it does, it’ll become really useful — and widely adopted.

2. Standardize video-out and mirroring in Android
Apple’s AirPlay protocol and common video-out capabilities on iOS and OS X via adapter cables has made Apple devices amazingly easy to use for presentations and video watching. All of its recent devices work with an Apple TV to share screens and play videos, so the Apple ecosystem is the only one for reliable wireless video. I’ve argued that Apple should make the AirPlay technology available on rival platforms, along with iTunes and AirPrint, but that’s probably a bridge too far for proprietary-oriented Apple.

But there’s no reason for the rest of the industry to remain a chaotic mess when it comes to video-out. Right now, there are three physical ports in the Android platform for video-out, creating an incompatible chaos; many devices support none of them. Also, the DLNA technology for wireless video is poorly implemented, resulting in huge incompatibilities among devices, TV sets, Blu-ray players, and the like. It doesn’t really work — no wonder video streaming is an Apple-only phenomenon in practice.

The Android community — as well as the lesser mobile platforms such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows 8 and RT — should standardize on the new Miracast technology for wireless video streaming (it’s interoperable!) and pick one video-out port for all devices, either MicroHDMI or, better, the new SlimPort used in the Nexus 4 that includes MicroUSB compatibility so that you need just one port. That will create the assured compatibility for home-entertainment device makers to deliver an Apple-like experience for the majority of households that haven’t become Apple strongholds.

3. Reimagine Passbook as a true mobile wallet — or get serious about Google Wallet
Apple’s Passbook app is intriguing conceptually as a repository of tickets, coupons, and other formerly paper-based transaction documents. But in real-world usage, it’s weak. Sure, having one app to open to get to receipts and loyalty card IDs is mildly convenient, but opening the app for the vendor in question is more natural. For example, opening the Walgreens app to present your loyalty card is an obvious action; ditto with a United Airlines boarding pass or Apple Store receipt.

The limitations of Passbook to essentially static transaction documents has frustrated Starbucks customers who hoped it would work more like the Starbucks app’s payment card feature — which it should.

Passbook would make a lot more sense if it could replace your wallet. We all know smartphones will do that one day; California in 2013 now allows smartphones to be used to display proof of insurance for drivers, for example. Passbook can help it along. The Photos app in iOS (like the Gallery app in Android) handles your favorite wallet photos and gives you access to many more via iCloud’s Photo Stream feature. But the rest of the wallet is open territory for mobile conversion.

The key missing component for Passbook is money, both cash and credit. If Passbook were connected to your banks and credit cards, much as the iTunes Store is, it could handle all but actual cash transactions — just like Google Wallet on Android. Better would be support for other intermediate payment processors like PayPal and Square that (along with iTunes, Amazon.com, and Google Play) are front ends to a collection of the usual debit and credit cards.

The next step would be to use something like NFC (à la Google Wallet) so that Passbook could work with other stored-payment systems such as transit cards that don’t use bar codes or QR codes as Passbook now does; the Square app does the same for its mobile payments. At some point, your driver’s license, health insurance card, building access cards (now being tested on Android and BlackBerry devices), and other such IDs could be made available via Passbook or Google Wallet. Maybe passports would be included one day.

Unlike a physical wallet, a digital wallet that’s been lost or stolen is easily locked or wiped, and its assets can be moved to a new device by logging in via the Web. The use of a password for the money aspects of the digital wallet should be mandatory, which the banks and credit processors could require.

I’ve mentioned Google Wallet a few times. It has executed many of the concepts already, but has limited availability thanks both to minimal support by Android device makers and to cellular carriers that have blocked its use even on devices as they try to foist their Isis payment system on users. By contrast, Apple’s Passbook is on all iOS 6-based iPhones (though not iPads), and carriers can’t block it, so it has critical-mass possibilities. Google Wallet, if ported to iOS and made standard on all Android devices, could be what Passbook should be — especially if it integrated tickets like Passbook. Once the wallet app is so capable, it would make sense for tickets to move from their vendors apps.

4. Modernize the phone in our smartphones
I know the phone in a smartphone is not that important to most users. Email and instant messaging are more convenient for the majority of communication, given that a conversation can build over time as people are available. But there are occasions when a live conversation is essential. Also, it’s crazy to manage so many phone lines: home line, work line, and smartphone.

As I’ve previously outlined, we need a way for phone lines to be transportable, so they’re not tied to a device or location. That way, all your numbers could forward to whatever device you have with you, and you can separately manage work and home numbers even when used on the same device. In today’s mobile world, our fixed-line telecom mentality makes no sense.

While you’re at it, don’t forget these improvements
Of course, many more refinements would be welcome as well. As smartphones become everyone’s cameras, more controls over photos before and after you take them would be appreciated. Both iOS and Android (especially 4.2 “Jelly Bean”) keep improving their capabilities in this regard, but it’d be nice if they took a bigger leap to be as good as a digital SLR.

I’d love to see the proprietary messaging platforms on all the mobile OSes become interoperable — the price that carriers charge for SMS is obscene, and Apple, Google, RIM, and Microsoft would help everyone by obsolescing that technology through interoperable messaging among iMessage, GoogleTalk, BlackBerry Messenger, and Windows Messenger. I know, I know: It won’t happen.

Finally, mobile devices would benefit from smarter separation when used by multiple people. iOS 6’s Guided Access is an insufficient first step on the iPad, compared to the multi-account approach in Android 4.2 “Jelly Bean” and in Windows 8 and RT. They all fall short in providing multi-user functionality on just tablets; smartphones should have it too.

We’ll see a revved iOS later this year — probably a revved Android as well. The new BlackBerry 10 could surprise us in any of these areas, and perhaps Microsoft will get more serious about Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. There’s plenty of opportunity for them all to deliver on their mobile promises in a better way. Here’s hoping!