[jpetso]

Software written well can work that way on Android, but not on iOS which force-suspends your process and sockets all the time. The only exceptions are granted unilaterally by Apple and the chance of them allowing server-like behavior on iPhones is infinitesimally small.

That's why it's important to hold on to people owning general-purpose computers, open standards and community governance: because once you move away to centrally-controlled appliances, there won't be a platform from which to bootstrap the next, better system.