Yesterday's news that Apple had sold more than a million iPhones in less than three months--after dropping its price by one third to $399 last week--felt pretty anticlimactic. So, Apple's newest most covetable device is flying off the shelves? So what?

Actually, says one of the world's leading Internet security experts, David Perry, who stopped by Newsweek's London office yesterday, the iPhone's record sales are a "very big deal." While we're all thoroughly accustomed to PC viruses--which are now being circulated at the rate of 15,000 per day, compared to just 5 per month in 1990--to date there has yet to be any major cell phone virus.

That's because of two things, says Perry, who is the Global Director of Security Education for international internet security frim, Trend Micro. First, computers are highly susceptible to viruses largely because we all (for the most part) use exactly the same Microsoft operating system, creating a monoculture that makes us all vulnerable to exactly the same kinds of malicious software (malware). Up until now, people have used too many different types of handsets and cell phone operating systems for virus writers to exploit them efficiently. Secondly, phones haven't been "smart" enough--that is to say, equipped with things like the ability to connect quickly to the internet and download music--to enable malware to work.

The iPhone, with its super slick Internet capabilities and predicted impressive market share--Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, which would see this single model take a full one percent share of America's total mobile phone market--will enable cyber criminals to overcome these traditional cell phone hurdles. As such, Perry predicts that next year we'll witness the world's first serious viral epidemic in cell phones.

The most likely virus: one that makes its way onto iPhone's Safari browser via the web, and then compels the phone to call an expensive 1-900 number repeatedly or download the same costly ringtone again and again--running up a massive bill. As Perry puts it: "Cyber criminals are trying to use malware as a magic spell to turn your cell phone into a zombie that's out to get you."