Spotlight: The rise of the smart phone

Cell phones are everywhere, growing in both number and type. A smart phone is a next-generation, multifunctional cell phone that provides voice communication and text-messaging capabilities and facilitates data processing as well as enhanced wireless connectivity. Both the industry and academic research communities are working to resolve numerous issues, ranging from low-power hardware design, to flexible I/O methods, to location-sensing technologies, to mobile security issues. Nevertheless, with the deployment of 3G and Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide and the adoption of smart phones by the masses, we expect to see a spectrum of new services and applications targeting smart phone users that essentially mobilize people's daily lives and enterprise computing.