But the social graph wouldn't be an information base hosted by a specific carrier or a presentation method specific to one device OS. In Iannucci's vision, it would be data stored in a cloud and accessible on any device, over any carrier network.

This would help mobile communications finally become a mature technology like mainframes, minicomputers and PCs, said Iannucci, who once headed the Nokia Research Center and has led researchers at Compaq, IBM and other companies. It requires a standard platform that's widely understood, around which third-party vendors can develop software and services, he said.

The mobile industry is still in a phase much like the PC industry before the marriage of Windows and Intel processors, with a plethora of different platforms, Iannucci said. As a result, users struggle with phones in a way they don't with computers.