According to a recent article in the journal New Scientist, third world countries like Africa are leading the way in cell phone innovation that combines the power of a personal computer with the portability of a cell phone handset. Many European countries and most Asia countries are far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to multi-functionality. The Japanese have been using their cellphones for everything from gaming devices to internet portals to virtual readers for years.

Africa is now at the forefront of innovation because it is easier for people who live there to own a cell phone than a PC. Many parts of Africa now distribute health care information via cell phones, use cell phones instead of credit cards for transactions (a feature expected eventually to hit the U.S.), and social networking. Many experts believe that in the near future cell phones and PCs will become one and the same.

The following events actually happened recently and they go to prove the utility of any cell phone and particularly of any smartphone. A British surgeon was a volunteer with the French medical charity Medicin Sans Frontieres. David Nott found a boy in Africa who needed to have it’s gangrenous arm amputated. That’s when he asked for assistance from a London surgeon, Meirion Thomas.

Thomas sent a 10-step guide via SMS to perform surgery on the boy and eventually that saved a life.

Thomas’s response was a cool 10-step guide to performing surgery on the boy to remove his arm along with collar bone and shoulder blade. Armed with that and a wish of good luck from his friend, Nott just “got on with it.”

He ended up saving the boy’s life. An iPhone saved a life and the knowledge behind that.

via reghardware