Can we have the perfect mobile platform for enterprise mobility please?

Ahh... sigh. Being in the mobile industry, I hear and read about so many different mobile platforms, whether it's the latest edition of BlackBerry, Symbian, webOS, iPhone OS, Android or Windows Mobile. These days, we're also hearing more and more about variants of mobile Linux such as Maemo. The problem is that all these platforms have great strengths, with equal weaknesses:

• BlackBerry: Amazing manageability, but the user experience is dated.
• Symbian: Outside of North America, the platform is still the leader, but it certainly needs (and will get) an overhaul;
• webOS: Uber-slick user experience, but is still unproven in the context of broad adoption, especially in the enterprise;
• iPhone: Arguably, the leading mobile consumer experience, but it still falls short on its enterprise capabilities;
• Android: While ahead of webOS, in terms of much support from handset manufacturers, the platform only recently acquired ActiveSync support and hence remains unproven in the enterprise;
• Windows Mobile: Ah yes, the much maligned platform that has stumbled as of late. It certainly has broad adoption in the enterprise (particularly for ruggedized devices), but has lost tremendous momentum from a consumer perspective.

So what's so hard in making an amazing mobile platform that can satisfy consumers, employees (by the way, they're consumers too) and IT managers? I'm not a developer, nor a product manager, but here is what's on my wish list:

1. The User Experience. First and foremost, the user interface needs to be rich and intuitive. Apple and Palm are arguably the leaders on this front. Device settings and features need to be where someone would naturally expect them to be. One should be able to perform most tasks on the device (certainly navigating it) by using their fingers on a touch screen. Features such as turning on or off Bluetooth or WiFi should be just a few clicks or taps away from the home screen. Changing the ringer to and from vibrate must be no more than two clicks away.
2. The Internet Experience. The browsing experience must be on (or close to) par with a desktop experience. Today, WebKit is the standard core engine for iPhone, webOS, Symbian, Android and (hopefully) soon on BlackBerry. WebKit does a great job of rendering most websites, but still falls short in certain areas, most notably Flash support. Windows Mobile 6.5 promises a browsing experience on par with the desktop edition of Internet Explorer 6--while certainly a great leap from the current Windows Mobile browsing experience, that engine is also dated.
3. Battery life. People these days have become accustomed to charging their smartphones (at least) once a day, especially those using an iPhone or a Palm Pre. That's a shame. BlackBerry and Symbian users don't need to do that. Why can't people use their devices throughout the day and know that they'll get at least another day of use without having to plug their device in?

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