VMWare Wants Virtualized Operating Systems on Smartphones

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/328811/vmware_developing_dual_os_smartphone_virtualisation?pp=1&fp=16&fpid=1' target='_blank'>http://www.computerworld.com.au/art...=1&fp=16&fpid=1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"VMware has flagged smartphones as the next platform in the evolution of virtualisation, but at least one major competitor, Microsoft, says that it sees no demand for the technology. Speaking to Computerworld, Srinivas Krishnamurti, VMware's head of mobile phone virtualisation said the company's vision for virtualisation on smartphones went beyond the basic dual-boot prototypes currently in development to one that ran both a private and work operating system and profile at the same time."</em></p><p>While intriguing, I'm somewhat skeptical that something like this would ever be practical in production. Sure in a test situation, network administrators could configure devices to run Windows Mobile alongside Android alongside Symbian, but what carrier is going to greenlight that arrangement? Even though the iPhone-era has seen carriers lighten up their grasp on "customizations" (a.k.a. revenue generating crapware), I doubt any carrier would be thrilled to think of a device they sold (and perhaps subsidized) running multiple operating systems!</p>

[Fritzly]

I'm somewhat skeptical that something like this would ever be practical in production. Sure in a test situation, network administrators could configure devices to run Windows Mobile alongside Android alongside Symbian, but what carrier is going to greenlight that arrangement? Even though the iPhone-era has seen carriers lighten up their grasp on "customizations" (a.k.a. revenue generating crapware), I doubt any carrier would be thrilled to think of a device they sold (and perhaps subsidized) running multiple operating systems!</p>

Cough, cough, United States are just one of the the many markets Worldwide...... and not one of the most advanced or lucrative one...... thanks to Carriers shortsighted policies.

[ffmobileguy]

Wbic. . . . .. . . . . ... .

[ugumba]

Personally, I'd consider using this for fun, but I'm a geek, developer, and mobile enthusiast. Even I wouldn't find it very useful beyond the WOW! factor. I can't see this being practical or useful to most other types of consumers.
Compared to workstation and server virtualization, the market for mobile virtualization must be (and will remain) smaller by several orders of magnitude.

I'd rather see improvements and developments on mobile VPN, mobile access to the desktop and other corporate (or private) resources. There are lots of pieces floating about.

[Jon Westfall]

Cough, cough, United States are just one of the the many markets Worldwide...... and not one of the most advanced or lucrative one...... thanks to Carriers shortsighted policies.

Well, it should be noted that the bloodlust for customization and crapware on phones was not (is not) limited to the United States. I've had phones from other regions with just as much useless junk as I've seen on my US carrier-issued phones.

[Fritzly]

Well, it should be noted that the bloodlust for customization and crapware on phones was not (is not) limited to the United States. I've had phones from other regions with just as much useless junk as I've seen on my US carrier-issued phones.

Absolutely but with a SIM free phone you can change things and functionalities are not disabled.
I bought my iPhone 3G in January 2008 and just because I bought i in Europe I was able to use MMS right away...... not that I use them at all but still...... the ability to do it was there.

[Sven Johannsen]

Swell, there's a solution looking for a requirement. How about we just get Apple to run more than one app at a time, or WM to get their memory management straightened out so the speed at which you run isn't inversly proportional to how many apps you run.

[Craig Horlacher]

This is huge! I'm all for it! Even if you don't run more than one OS on it at a time it's great!

The big deal is that this would separate the software from the hardware! You could setup a logical "Phone" exactly the way you like it and move it between devices, PC's, or flash drives. You could then recover from any disaster instantly by putting that image back on any new phone with the only prerequisite being a completely generic installation of the virtualization software.

This would make hardware upgrades and disaster recovery a breeze!

This would also be huge for large organizations that need to manage phones remotely. The possibility of sending out a completely new phone image would be awesome. Current methods of doing this are very limited.

[doogald]

How about we just get Apple to run more than one app at a time, or WM to get their memory management straightened out so the speed at which you run isn't inversly proportional to how many apps you run.

Of course, my first thought is that the reason for the former is the experience of the latter.

At some point these devices will be as powerful as desktop computers we use today, which many use to virtualize other OSes. And I can see this as a great way to get multitasking in a way that is truly sandboxed from the critical kernel operations of the basic memory and IO operations, minimizing potential damage from mobile malware, and giving us an iPhone that can, in fact, run multiple third party apps at once.

[CeluGeek]

I'd rather see true dual-booting OS's rather than virtualized (OS a running inside OS b) images.

[Fritzly]

I'd rather see true dual-booting OS's rather than virtualized (OS a running inside OS b) images.

Good point.

[Sven Johannsen]

Guess you just need to get Apple to license code to HTC. They already run every other significant phone OS. ;)