VMWare Working to Virtualize Smartphones

Most geeks have, at some point of time or the other, used multiple operating systems at once. We love our Windows environments, our Linux distros, and our Joliclouds. And we love to have them running at once. Well, if VMWare (the pioneers of virtualization) are to be believed, that same goodness is comin to our phones as well.

Srinivas Krishnamurti, VMWare's head of mobile phone virtualization, in an interview to Computer World said that they are currently working on various means by which virtualization maybe possible on mobile phones. He went on to add that merely dual-boot smartphones won't be the way forward, and that there must be a way by which multiple operating systems may be run simultaneously. He says,

We don’t think dual booting will be good enough – we’ll allow you to run both profiles at the same time and be able to switch between them by clicking a button,” he said. “You’ll be able to get and make calls in either profile – work or home – as they will both be live at any given point in time.

That single statement shows the kind of potential that virtualization has. VMWare has already demonstrated the co-existence of Android and Windows Mobile on the Nokia N800. Over time, we may see various operating systems slugging it out even more to be the consumer's secondary OS of choice. Of course, this also means that mobile hardware must continue to expand in the way it has been doing over the past few years. The only downside that the consumer may face would be the need to pay licensing fees for using a particular OS. But at the moment, it seems to be a very bright and shiny future for cellphone power users. I, for one, am dying to run the iPhone OS on my last generation Nokia N82.

---

Leave your views on smartphone virtualization in the Comments section (click the post headline to reach there). If you like this post, click Share below and spread the goodness.