Chapter 1

Harnessing the Power of the Mobile Web

Welcome to the first chapter of this book. In this chapter, we’ll endeavor to not only tell you about what you’ll find in this book, but to also compare it to what has come before. You see, quite simply, it is only now that the true power of mobile web applications and mobile-optimized websites is being realized, despite the existence of the “web” on mobile phones in some form for 10 years.

Before we show off the neat stuff we have planned for this book, it’s probably best to make sure everyone is on the same page, lingo-wise. So we’ll start talking about the basic terms in web design. In the second section, we’ll talk about the precursors to today’s mobile web. And finally, in the last section, we’ll talk about the concepts that will guide this book and give you a sneak peek at some of the applications we’ll be developing!