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A web server. On your mobile phone. Yes, it works - but why?

"Running a server on your phone is, at the moment, more of a proof of concept demonstration," commented Rafe Blandford of All About Sybian.

"However," he continued, "it has interesting potential uses. For example it offers away to gain access to information about where the phone is, what is stored on the phone (both contacts and pictures), as well as providing a personal web server that is more intimately connected to an individual."

The web server he's on about is Raccoon, which is a port of the Apache webserver for Nokia's Series 60 range of smartphones.

"The web server, once connected and running on the phone, is accessible from any web connected computer or the device itself" commented Blandford.

Nokia says: "In addition to the built in Apache modules, a number concept demos have been included. These are, as the heading says, concept demos and many are not really meant to be useable for real.
Interactive, Context and Location Dependent Content."

These demonstrate, says Nokia, "that a website on a mobile phone is not just like any other website that simply happens to be on a mobile phone, but that it enables functionality that, in the context of regular stationary websites, is largely meaningless."

Examples given: