Mobile apps could benefit from the UCS

Rating: What we need is a UMSD

The concept of ‘one-charger-fits-all’ for mobile phones – courtesy of a technology known as Universal Charging Solution (UCS) - just a major boost from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Could this unity be applied to other areas of the handset industry – like storage, for example?For the technically minded, all that UCS does is to require every mobile phone manufacturer to start to produce handsets which are charged via a micro-USB connector [not mini USB].

UCS is basically the result of an initiative from the GSM Association (GSMA). UCS has succeeded because its ‘Green’ credentials are impeccable and it would seem churlish of any manufacturer to say “No.”

With the ITU’s endorsement, UCS has effectively gone global and no longer has to be associated with one particular type of cellular network technology.

So why can’t this unity be taken further and be applied to storage media used inside mobile phones? If every phone in the world produced after this could access a single type of memory card, it would work wonders for mobile software distribution.

Virtually every computer can load software from a CD, so why can’t we create a single size, shape and type of memory card that would fit inside every single mobile phone?

For starters, I can’t imagine the likes of Sony giving up its memory stick technology and agreeing to use micro SD cards. This is one way of differentiating the company’s products from others.

Which is a shame really because the green footprint of everyone adopting tiny micro SD cards would be impressive.

So let’s think laterally. USB memory sticks have become a universal storage medium. And every mobile phone will soon have a micro USB port.

Technically it would be possible to provide an adapter (probably a cable) that would hook the USB memory stick up to the phone.

Then you could load the three most common versions of your mobile app: – Symbian; Windows Mobile and iPhone,  then distribute your products through the retail market.

There are probably a number of technical issues in the way - from the hardware perspective (getting the phone to recognise the stick), to the software aspect (the file format for storing software).

It’s kind of been done before with Bluetooth, for example, which is a standard that all the hardware and software vendors can work to.

All we need is an organisation to set up the relevant technical committee and – hey presto – a universal mobile storage device. There, I’ve even named it - the UMSD.