“You know what?  The Nintendo Wii, thus far, has been pretty successful.”

That’s clearly the understatement of 2007.  The Wii’s use of motion-sensor technology has casual gamers bee-lining from one tech shop to the next, looking for the elusive little white console.  Although Nintendo is struggling to keep the Wii in stock, gamers couldn’t be happier with the company. 

The result?  The popularity of the Wiimote may now be on its way to the mobile phone market, with devices that can measure movement to scroll a screen, count footsteps, and even keep track of the calories burned in a day.

At the heart of the motion-sensor technology are accelerometers, which have been used for years in automobile airbags.  In that capacity, they can detect the instant kickback provided when a vehicle slams into another object, instantly signaling that danger is at hand and the bag should be deployed.

That kind of technical genius has already been applied to Nintendo’s Wii (albeit, in a more entertaining role), and is just now becoming more popular within cell phones across the Pacific.  South Koreans and the Japanese already own a few phones possessing the accelerometer technology, which might make its American debut with Apple’s phenomenally ambitious iPhone. 

Although details are still unclear, Apple’s product can reportedly detect when it’s being rotated so as to display images in vertical or horizontal format. 

While these functions seem fairly basic, for now, motion-sensitivity appears to be the next step in making mobile phones appealing to the mainstream market.  Besides Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and even LG have the potential to release products pushing Wii-like capabilities.

Let’s just hope no one contracts “Cell Elbow”.