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Stand by for smartphone mission creep leap

Today's WSJ article on midrange smartphones getting social-networking capabilities is just the tip of the iceberg. You may personally wish you didn't have to know about Twitter, Facebook, and such, but not only will the rest of the world not shut up about them, soon your phone won't either.

The manufacturers certainly see where the money is (isn't that easier when there's so little money around?), and the providers your mobile provider works with are hustling to bulk up their offerings. Good Technology, for instance, announced yesterday that they've acquired Intercasting Corporation. That combines a major enterprise push mobility provider (the guys who very likely make your e-mail and data accessible through your mobile phone; they were part of Motorola until earlier this year, and when Visto acquired the division it changed its name to match) and the purveyors of the ANTHEM platform, which specializes in mobile social networking and has deals in place with the usual MyTwitFace suspects.

We talked yesterday about how information currently wanted to be particulate, real-time, and connected to the reputation of the source. It only makes sense that smartphones are going to be a big part of that, and today's news fragments start to fill that picture in. I'm concerned, though, that I'm not hearing more from the power-management guys where these things are concerned, as I mentioned above.

For instance, the Sidekick LX 2009 I tested last week had some sweet social-networking apps integrated into the operating system. The alerts were great. The interface was great. The go-everywhere functionality was great. And the battery life was horrid. With my Twitter feed set to update regularly, my battery drained in about 14 hours. I was warned by T-Mobile that that might happen, as users of other smartphones are warned about similar apps on other handsets.

But warnings aren't going to be enough. No one who uses a mobile phone these days is going to accept radically diminished battery life as the price for any feature -- not even social-networking-anywhere access. Keep an eye on developments in this space, but don't get too excited until you see big movement from the guys who keep the juice flowing.