This paper surveys most of the currently available smart phones in the market. It summarizes its features and characteristics. From this study a set of must-have and desirable-to-have features for future generations of smart phones are described. The main drivers of smart phones that enable convenient and secure mobile commerce services such as electronic wallet, electronic payment, 3G broadband Internet access, and multimedia content are then described. Finally, payer-centric payment architecture is advocated to facilitate the adoption of smart phones for mobile commerce applications, in contrast to the current prevalent mode of payee-centric payment practice. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.