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A huge part of the mobile experience is still extremely subpar. No one has created a seamless handsfree experience. I briefly blogged about this 2.5 years ago, and I still feel like there is tons of room for improvement. I don’t blame the headset companies, as my Plantronics (and for many others Jawbone) headset works great… as a headset for phone calls. But using it is not easy. Voice dialing (calling a contact using voice recognition) is a very basic start. The iPhone has Voice Control, which is little more than voice dialing plus basic iPod controls. Android has the best solution right now, Voice Actions, which seems very promising. Yet it doesn’t work consistently with a bluetooth headset, and the commands themselves are too robotic for most users. There are also some solid apps in the space. Nuance’s Dragon voice to text is great. Siri (which Apple purchased 1.5 years ago) has a good amount of NLP (also uses Nuance) and allows for a variety of different commands. Vlingo, Google, and countless others have apps too. But it isn’t effective unless it’s integrated at the OS level and works with handsfree devices.

The obvious use case (especially in CA and other states where there are specific laws) is controlling the phone while driving. Some cars have tried solving this, but none (that I’ve tried) have done it well. But handsfree use cases can be more common- anywhere from multitasking to video chat would be improved by some sort of integrated headset. Wired headsets are obviously not easy to use (I feel like I’m always untangling mine). And wired headsets only work on a single device- bluetooth would allow for switching between iPhone/iPad/etc. where appropriate. Apple previously tried making a bluetooth headset (see here) but apparently gave up, I’m guessing due to technical limitations and lack of polish. The bluetooth spec has improved significantly, allowing for better quality and lower power consumption. A typical headset now can go days/weeks before a charge with decent use. My ultimate wish is that the headset would be able to charge directly from the phone via a mini charging connection or induction-based charger.

But the software integration is the most important – the headset and phone need to understand a variety of commands and output results using display and more importantly voice. Something like “look up directions to Mitchell’s Ice Cream” should return a map and read out the list of turns.  ”Schedule phone call with Mom for tomorrow at 3 pm” should read back, create a calendar item, and send an invite. The harder but equally important one command is “reserve a table for tomorrow at 7 pm at Aziza for 4 people,” which should use the OpenTable app, and read back available reservation openings and confirm. And the software should somehow know how to differentiate and use the appropriate device, whether an iPhone on the road, or the Apple TV at home.

My prediction (dream?) is this will be solved in the next major iOS (5.x) release, and that Apple will release a headset at the same time.

Google is a remarkable company.  They’ve flipped the business model in numerous ways, because they can.  But what’s happening in the mobile space is becoming a both exciting and troubling.  I love how they give away navigation data, or that they pay manufacturers to use their phone.  Soon they will subsidize your laptop, and maybe even your TV.  It’s giving folks who don’t normally have access to some of this technology a way to buy it.  And in the mobile space, with their new “phone”, they are trying to break the carrier-driven model (which I argue would come anyways once LTE rolls around, as most carriers will then be on the same technical platform).  To Google, it’s all about getting the accessing the world’s information and letting you search it quickly (and of course selling ads).

But soon, a single company could provide your software for your email, browser, OS, TV, and mobile phone.  That’s every single way I consume information, purchase products, and communicate with my friends and family.  A single advertising company.

Right now, they are a fairly friendly privacy company.  But what happens if growth slows, or there’s a change in leadership, and the company is pressured to seek alternate revenue streams.  I’m not sure I’m ready for a single company to own/control access to all this data.  I like convergence but not this much.  The question as a consumer is where do we draw the line?  Google has not made many major missteps with privacy (though last week’s comments were awfully close).  But what if that changes?

The thing is this – there should be a large competitor that’s challenging Google and trying to perform the same convergence, and there isn’t a clear one yet.  Yahoo tried with Connect TV/Digital Home, but they have been struggling.  Microsoft has been trying to push Media Center for awhile, and their mobile platform is confusing at best.

Apple seems the best poised.  Although no one has said it, the new Google device is their answer to the iPod Touch, a tremendous device that can be used for a variety of things, including as a phone (and I’m guessing an HD camera soon).  But Apple tends to attack verticals.  Regardless, I will continue to use my Apple phone, my Windows laptop, and my garbage software on my TV.

I hope some startups and incumbents come up with ways to challenge Google on all fronts.

FYI – I’m long Apple.

Apple announced today that over 2 billion apps had been downloaded – quite an amazing feat in little over one year.  Since I started using an iPhone, I realize that my favorite part is the App Store.  The touch screen and slim profile are nice, but it’s really the store that makes me love the device.  Perhaps I’m unique.  As a kid, I used to love getting the Sunday newspaper, especially on a snowy day, when the newspaper was cold and crisp.  After perusing the sports section and the comics, I loved leafing through the CompUSA and Circuit City flyers, especially the clearance and sales sections.  I could never buy enough cheap peripherals or hard drives.

The app store has taken over my previous excitement that I felt about the flyers.  Now I download Waze or buy Snapture rather than a trackball mouse or screen cleanser.  Instead of waiting for Sunday, I can just load up the store on a whim and see if there are any cool apps.  I wish there was more turnover in top apps, but the fact is that it’s far and away better than Blackberry’s App World (and I hear also Android’s and Palm’s, though I have limited first-hand experience).  It has the instant gratification element.  I wish that the iPhone allowed developers more flexibility, but as long as people keep releasing great apps, I will be interested.  And that’s the key – the moment another platform’s app store gets more traction, and their apps become more innovative than the iPhone’s apps in terms of quality and quantity, I will most likely switch over.

UPDATE: As I was loading up my blog to post this, I saw a very relevant argument that Blackberry needs to step up their efforts in the app store.  Worth a read…

I am probably not the typical phone user.  I rely on my device for a ton of things throughout the day and night, anywhere from email, maps, news, shopping, entertainment, and, of course calling people.  My Blackberry 8800 and then Bold served me well in all these functions – I used their integrated email, Google Maps, Viigo, Amazon App, the camera, UberTwitter, Facebook, and more, all at least once a day.  When the iPhone initially came out, I thought it was a cool toy, but nothing that could replace my daily needs.  Once the SDK was released, I started to grow a bit envious.  Cool apps were developed left and right.  I needed to buy an iPod Touch to help satisfy my gadget needs.

A couple things kept me excited about Blackberry – their App Store and OS5.  I thought here was a chance for Blackberry to demonstrate their full potential.  The Bold was a fairly powerful device when utilized to it’s max (see Google Maps, Vlingo, Amazon, Shazam apps), so it seemed like it could be somewhat competitive.  The problem is that Blackberry was originally built as a messaging device, targeted at enterprises, with lots of security built-in.  They did a good job of building a platform around it, but it wasn’t scalable.

Then the App Store came around – which tried to imitate Apple’s.  Soon after, OS5 pictures leaked out.  Here was a chance to even the playing field – and they didn’t come close.  The app store made installing apps easier (though you needed to know how to download the App Store app ironically), but OS5 looked just like 4.6, 4.2, etc, with some additional features.  They’ve tried to woo developers (see Blackberry Fund), but it hasn’t really worked.  The reason is not lack of devices- there are many more Blackberries in the market than iPhones.  It’s that from everything I hear and see, it’s not easy to develop on Blackberry.  From the poorly documented API, large number of models, different versions of OS’s, etc, it’s just tough to manage.  And it doesn’t seem to be getting better (BGR wrote a great piece on this).

The one advantage I always thought I’d have over the iPhone was phone service quality.  But once calls started dropping (quite an understatement), I decided to give the Palm Pre on Sprint a try.  Knowing I could return the device within 30 days, I went out and bought a Pre.  My quick review-  it’s great product but needs to mature (and it will, in time).  webOS was awesome – they did a great job with the “cards” and multi-tasking.  I really liked how the mail and notifications popped on the bottom.  I liked how most things worked, although at times it felt a bit too cute.  Problem came down to the keyboard.  I did not like the keys – felt way to plasticky.  And I especially did not like how it slid out.  Everytime I needed to do something I had to flip out the keyboard – I felt like I was going to drop it and it just slowed things down.  It actually made me crave a virtual keyboard.  That’s when I decided to get the iPhone 3GS.

I’ve had it a couple days now, and I can’t imagine going back.  It’s weird, because I was once a hard core Blackberry user (convinced friends and family to get one).  But now – I’m going the other way.  If you can get over the lack of a physical keyboard (which isn’t terrible unless you write a ton of emails) and the non-removable battery (which wasn’t much worse than my Bold, though I carried a backup), there’s no comparison.  And while I still have nostalgia for my Bold keyboard and its build quality (mine survived a beating), if you crave features and functionality, the iPhone is the way to go.  Sorry, Blackberry.

FYI – I am long Apple, and have been for almost 2 years.

I think I summarized a significant number of headlines.  I find these extremely unuseful.  I agree it’s a good idea to compare a new product to an old, incumbent.  However, what is not useful (to me at least) is to compare them in a black and white modicum.   It’s most prevalant with two products –  Google Search and the iPhone.  Every new company that has focus on search is compared to Google, and labeled as a Google-killer, or not.  Cuil was victimized by this.  Wolfram and Bing are newer examples.  For the iPhone, it’s the Blackberry Storm or the Palm Pre.

While most of these companies didn’t mind the publicity (at least before it started), it’s not fair for anyone involved.  the iPhone and Google Search were paradigm shifters.  When both came out, they transformed user behavior, and forced others in the market to follow suit.  The fact that we have to label something an x-killer means that it probably failed at killing x because it instantly reminds everyone of x.  Did anyone call the iPhone a Razr-killer?  Or the Google an Altavista-killer?

The other issue – not being a killer does not preclude success.  I would have a legitimate argument that Verizon is doing better than AT&T with the Storm.  Verizon sold 500,000 units the first month, and 1M units in the first two months (compare that to the iPhone 3G, which sold 2.4M in the first three months).  Verizon, for one, probably pays a significantly lower amount to RIM than AT&T does for the iPhone exclusivity.  Second, the margins for the network have to be MUCH better on Verizon.  Check out the recent AdMob metrics report – while  RIM represented 17% of smartphone sales, they only represented 9% of HTML traffic measured by AdMob.  Compare that to Apple – 8% of smartphone sales with 43% of the traffic.  The actual difference is probably worse – the report uses 2008 sales data as a proxy of  current market share.  Anyways, this defines success from the network perspective, not the consumer perspective, but I think it’s important that we keep that in mind (and as a consumer on AT&T’s network, I can tell you that more phone sales, especially iPhone sales, is ruining my experience and is about to drive me to another network).

One interesting article to check out – apparently we did miss that Google was a killer until it was already popular.