A smart phone is a cross between a mobile phone and a personal data assistant (PDA), sometimes called an "XDA". The "X" being for "extended". If the only virtue was being able to carry only one device, that might still make the smart phone worth the $1000 price tag. However, smart use of the smart phone is proving to be a much more valuable and powerful business tool. And the future holds even smarter smart phones and increasing likelihood that they will move from yuppie toy to indispensable business tool.

The idea of "ubiquitous connectivity" where every device is connected to the Internet all the time and from everywhere made headlines 20 years ago but hasn't quite made reality yet. The smart phone coupled with mobile wireless broadband access and third generation mobile telephone networks brings ubiquitous connectivity close enough to touch. And close enough to make smart phones a viable business tool. I use a smart phone. Yes it is a yuppie toy. But as a mobile worker who visits clients and runs a busy business diary, my smart phone is probably the most valuable business tool I have. Coupled with a Microsoft Exchange mail box, I have only one set of information that is the same no matter whether I see it on the Internet or on my laptop, on my desk computer at the office, at home or on my smart phone. Practically this means that my e-mail, schedule and contacts are identical wherever I see them and can be updated once for all the devices. I can also share all this information with my staff. They can make appointments in my schedule that do not conflict with appointments that I have made sitting in the client's office. When the telephone rings, I know who is calling if their number exists in my company's database, I can also call up my notes from the last time I spoke to the caller and if they want to know information about prices or availability or even place an order. I can do this from my smart phone as well. Just having the right updated contact information in my phone all the time without me having to remember to cradle the phone to synchronize it makes it worthwhile for me.

Smart phones may not be for everyone. To get value from them you need a phone account that accesses data service like GPRS (general packet radio service) and a system at the other end like Microsoft Exchange and Outlook (about $15.00 a month) and the personal skills to use the system. If you are a mobile worker who works away from the office and who lives by your contacts and schedule, then this is the tool for you. Lawyers and barristers, plumbers and electricians, real estate agents and consultants, and just about everyone else who doesn't spend their working life in one place needs one of these.

The battle of the brands is underway with Microsoft now aggressively marketing its smart phone software in competition with Symbian, which is owned by a number of mobile phone manufacturers and is the standard. Love or hate Microsoft, their entry into this market and their ability to tie their mobile phone software to the rest of their desk top ecosystem cannot be ignored. Blackberry are probably the market leader with several years history of a dedicated hand piece and server backend which has proven very popular. Most mobile phone manufacturers now have a smart phone hand piece and the third generation telephone networks can make good use of them.

The smart phone will go the same way as the e-ticket. It will become the industry standard and we will not be able to remember when there was an alternative. And they will continue to get smarter; well at least more complex. Future versions of the smart phones are likely to do everything from scan bar codes in supermarkets to provide product information on the fly and comparison prices from nearby competitors to acting as remote controllers for the television. Our telephones will become our personal mobile data storage devices and will be used as our dictaphones and our portable music players. They will become the access keys to our online banking systems and increasingly will act as our wallets. We will purchase goods with our mobile phone that will be charged to our bank accounts with just a small commission for the telephone company along the way.

My smart phone already acts as a navigation system using GPS and alerts me to red light cameras. Unfortunately, the red light camera alert is a little slow and normally tells me about the camera I have just driven through. If we polish up the crystal ball and try to look 20 years into the future, then we will see our mobile phones as being indispensable as they contain our finances, our entertainment, our communications and even our identity. I predict that within 20 years identity cards and passports will be contained within our mobile phones and our mobile phones will only work with some sort of biometric security like fingerprints or iris scans. George Orwell didn't foresee mobile phones but they would have fitted right in "1984" - just a few years late.