The crop of new gizmos and gadgets at this year's 3GSM Congress in Cannes - the mobile phone industry's annual bash - may have been paltry when compared with previous years. But behind the products that did appear lies one very important point: mobile data is upon us.
Texting was a runaway success but the new generation of phones - some of which did see the light of day on the French Riviera - will take using phones for something other than making voice calls to a whole new level.
After last year's small batch of phones with built-in or clip on cameras - Sony Ericsson's T68i, Nokia's 7650 and Sharp's GX10 being the prime examples - the handset manufacturers have run away with themselves.
German mobile phone giant Siemens showcased a new smartphone with built-in camera called the SX1, which is definitely funkier than the 7650 and less clunky than the Sharp phone that Vodafone has made central to its Vodafone Live! service.
Siemens is hiding a new phone under the table which some in the industry believe will give the 7650 a real run for its money, but it looks as if the media will have to wait until CeBIT next month to get a look at it.
Nokia was rather quiet about new phones using current network technology but, like some if its rivals, was willing to talk about phones for the new 3G network technology, which will allow video downloading as well as video conferencing.
Nokia's 3G handset is on track for delivery in the first half of 2003. The Finnish handset giant has already shipped about 10,000 to operators and network equipment suppliers for testing and believes that the phone will make a major splash once the operators start rolling out 3G networks.
SonyEricsson used Cannes to unveil its first 3G handset. The handset manufacturer does not yet have an operator signed up to supply the phone, although perhaps the fact that the model shown in Cannes on Tuesday was painted red is a nod towards Vodafone, which will be launching its service next year.
Rival Motorola, of course, is already one step ahead, selling its own 3G handset through 3, the UK's fifth network operator which will go live next month.
Motorola's current 3G handset, the A820, is rather on the clunky side but according to the head of 3G handsets, Bob Schukai, the company already has plans for a smaller version which should be available next year.
Despite its size the Motorola phone is a better piece of kit than 3's other phone - the NEC e606 - for one simple reason: it gives much better quality video. Out in Cannes this week, Motorola was showing off video downloads at 15 frames per second. That's not the same as VHS video but at least you really can see the ball when you watch a Premiership highlight.
As for whether 3G will actually work, Bob Schukai is adamant: "There are no major issues to overcome, all we are trying to do now is fine tune the service and the network."
But perhaps the most exciting thing to come out of the Motorola stable at Cannes was the first glimpse of the A760. This PDA-like phone is going to cause others in the industry some sleepless nights. It has a see-through flip up cover rather like the Handspring Treo, full colour touch screen, built-in camera, MP3 player and Bluetooth.
"So what?" I hear you ask. Well, it will also be the first phone produced using the Linux open source operating system. It opens up a whole new front in the battle for sontrol of the so-called smartphone market.
Motorola decided to adopt Linux earlier this year in something of a shock move. The US company is a shareholder in Symbian, the software joint venture which created the operating system that powers phones such as the SonyEricsson P800 and Nokia 7650.
Symbian is locked in a battle with Microsoft for dominance of the operating system market but the US software giant has had little success to date. Now Symbian has to battle one of its own shareholders as well.
"It is a terrible disappointment to that they have decided to go Linux/Java," said Symbian's chief financial officer Thomas Chambers. "But I think it is a regional play in the Far East more than anything else."
But privately, Symbian insiders admit that they are concerned that is if Motorola can make a go of its A760 phone - which unfortunately is only going to be made available in the Far East - then the company will start offering its new Linux based technology to other handset makers. If true, next year's 3GSM Congress could play host to a new breed of open source phones.
