Current smartphones have more processing power and memory than early internet servers. From that perspective there is no reason why you could not run a web server and host a personal mobile web site on a smartphone. However, a web site does not make much sense unless it can be accessed from the Internet and that is generally not possible in current cellular networks.

But the availability of a web server, even when reachable from the Internet, does not imply that it would be wise to run just any kind of web site on a mobile phone. The processing power and the network bandwidth is lower and the cost and network latency is higher than that of a regular web server. Furthermore, the availability of a mobile web site is not on the same level as that of a regular web site.

This session is roughly divided in two parts. The first delves into the porting of the Apache HTTP web server to the S60 smartphone platform and into a created connectivity solution that provides general HTTP access to a smartphone from the Internet in the cellular networks of today. The second part deals with mobile web sites, how they differ from regular web sites and what possibilities they enable.