Move data from your mobile phone to the Web

I believe all of us have changed a mobile handset (at least once). Long time ago (like mid -nineties) it was a pleasure. Being a GSM subscriber in 1993 meant your phone was bulky and heavy and all your personal data (mostly contacts directory) was stored on a SIM card. So you brought your new (less bulky and less heavy) handset from the shop, pulled the SIM from the old one, popped in the new and voila - everything worked as intended. The new phone logged to the network and you were able to dial. But as the years passed by and mobile phone turned gradually into "mobile - everything - you - need", silently you started to store more and more information in it. More PERSONAL information. SIM address books had simple structure: name (alphanumeric) + number (digits). Current phones bring hierarchies. Name is no longer just a string of characters. There is a first name, last name, company name. And there are several numbers per contact (mobile, home, work, fax) and other fields like an email address. Day by day you keep entering this information. A new number calls and your phone offers to save it as a contact, you add name and other info to it and save.

After two years (typical period of service contract) of being loyal to your carrier you are offered a new, flashier, better mobile phone if you decide to extend the contract. The new gadget has many extras - FM radio, color screen, Internet browser,... and is even slimmer and flashier. So you swallow the bait and pop your SIM card in just to realize there are just two numbers in the directory: emergency (112 in Europe and 911 in the US) and voice mail. The rest is gone. To be correct, the rest is in your old phone. SIM cards do not carry contacts anymore. SIM structures (flat list) and capacities (100 or 250 if you are lucky) are not enough, so phones store the information in their internal memories. So in a panic you go back to your old and faithful one, where your data is, but the new one still attracts with its looks and new features. After a while you decide to make the effort and TRY to move the contacts "somehow" across to the new phone.

First you try saving contacts to the SIM card to move them over, but you soon realize you loose the structure (directory is no longer hierarchical with multiple numbers under one name). No to mention you are only able to move only part of the list this way. Then after reading a manual you notice you can "beam" the contacts over infrared or Bluetooth, but soon find out the originating phone (for some reason known only to its designers) can transmit only one entry at a time, and repeating the process 400 times would take two weeks. Then you turn to a neighbor who is a computer geek and offers to move the contacts from the old phone to Outlook and then to the new phone, but you soon find out your phone does not connect to Outlook at all (though it should...). Finally you decide to retype the entire address book...

Wouldn't it be good if your mobile operator had a service that allowed you to "push" all the contacts from your (old) phone, over the air, to a hosted Web service (similar to GMail). Push one button and backup your data to the network. Then take the new phone and "restore" the network backup. With one press of a button. Service like that would make users very happy. It is straightforward for the operator to implement, yet only a few are actually offering it. Imagine all your data backed up. Lost your phone? Lost nothing! Bring a new one, push a button and restore the information. Your PERSONAL information.

There are tons of services that can be built on top of an address book stored at the network. Smart messaging, like Missed Call Notifications can show the NAMES of the people trying to reach you instead of their meaningless numbers. Voice Activated Dialing, a service build on ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) technology would let you dial a short number (like *4444) and say the name of a person you would like to talk (imagine having this when driving a car). Add the presence information to that ("Carl is at the meeting, would you like to leave him a message?"). Intuitive configuration of your personal ringback tones and blacklists (again names instead of numbers). Numbers are things from the past, they originated when rotary dial was your user interface. Names are what we know and love. Technology and services in 21st century should not be built on what was available 100 years ago. Dear mobile carriers, if you really want to be innovative, do not restrict me with SIM cards and rotary-dial numbers. Give me the service I deserve!