For example though, I had a Cingular 8125 mobile phone which I recently upgraded to an AT&T 8525 (after cracking the LCD display of the 8125). They are essentially the same, so I have had the same basic functionality for about the past 2 years. My phone has a large, touch screen display. My phone plays MP3’s. My phone switches from portrait to landscape display. My phone has integrated wireless and 3G access to the Web (3G is actually a feature missing from the iPhone). The iPhone is slimmer and “sexier”. The iPhone represents a higher degree of simplicity and improved functionality in many areas. But, for the most part, my phone does everything the iPhone does, and it has been doing it since long before the iPhone came out.

Phones like mine, or the iPhone, are a new breed of mobile phone. They blur the line between mobile phone, digital music player, and portable computing device. The main issue, from a security perspective, is the ability to initiate a phone call on the mobile phone by clicking on a link within the Web browser. As this article points out, it would be possible to hide or obfuscate the true URL, and possibly trick users into sharing information, or even luring them into initiating a call to a 900-number so that the attacker can generate income without having to steal and exploit the user’s data.