Mobile computing is a wonderful thing. Whether you’re a poser sitting in Starbucks clacking away on your notebook, or a real road warrior working on a big client presentation while sitting in the airport lounge, the combination of small computing devices and wireless broadband has done more to change the way we work since Henry Ford invented the assembly line.

I don’t personally own an iPhone and I’m not likely to run out and buy one any time soon, at least, not until I can get one for less than a hundred bucks and pick my own carrier. For a lot of users, it’s a little like owning a Hummer when you live in New York City–overkill, too expensive, and completely unnecessary. But I will credit the iPhone with one thing, and that’s changing the world’s perception about smartphones. More than any other device, the iPhone has helped to propel us all into the new world of smart phones and Internet-enabled mobile devices, and this very large paradigm shift will in the end, give us a lot more smartphones, with a lot more features, at a lot lower cost and from a lot more vendors.

Having said all that, I take note of the fact that a major security flaw has been found on the iPhone. Reported and verified on Gizmodo, the flaw lets anyone gain full access to the device’s private information, including emails.

The most alarming thing is not that the flaw exists. The iPhone is after all, a relatively new product, and all new products have flaws (yes, even if they come from Apple!). What’s truly alarming is that so many people think that the flaw is not a big deal. It would seem that a great many of the correspondents in the blogosphere haven’t really gotten the fact that the iPhone isn’t just a telephone, it’s a multifunction portable device that can hold a tremendous amount of valuable, sensitive data, that if it got into the wrong hands, could have big repercussions. Just wait until you get your client list stolen off of your iPhone and have to explain it to your boss–then maybe it will sink in. Whether it’s the iPhone, BlackBerry, or any other smartphone/multifunction mobile device, it’s no longer just a cell phone: and security precautions should be applied to the same degree that you would your notebook computer.