Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

VMware Dives into Mobile Virtualization

Geoff Duncan
By
VMware Dives into Mobile Virtualization

Although there’s no denying that virtualization has revolutionized the server and software development worlds—and is even having an impact on some consumers—are we really ready for virtualization on mobile phones? VMware seems to think so, and has announced a new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform based on technology it acquired with France’s Trango Virtual Processors last month. The idea behind phone virtualization is to enable movile users to have the benefits of multiple mobile operating systems using just a single handset: they might use one operating system for personal use, then switch to another for work-related tasks.

“By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users. We look forward to working closely with our partners to bring new mobile solutions to market faster, said VMware’s president and CEO Paul Maritz, in a statement.

Recommended Videos

VMware’s MVP technology currently supports Linux 2.6.x, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0, Symbian 9.x, and phone OS’s eCos, µITRON NORTi and µC/OS-II.

Related

While phones may seem underpowered for standard virtualization techniques, processing and storage capacities of phones are only going to increase, and market analysis firm Gartner seems a growing market for mobile virtualization, forecasting half of all smartphones shipped in 2012 will be virtualized to offer both enterprises and consumers a wide range of choices and capabilities on the same hardware.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
The T-Mobile Tuesdays app is about to get a big upgrade
A screenshot of the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, showing a promo for the new T Life app.

T-Mobile is a consistent leader in the ongoing 5G race, and to kick off 2024 on an interesting note, the carrier has announced that a big change is coming to its T-Mobile Tuesdays app. In short, the app is going away — and in its place, a new one is launching soon.

If you open the T-Mobile Tuesdays app today, January 2, you'll see a card that says "Introducing T Life." Below that is additional text that describes T Life as "a new app for T-Mobile Tuesdays."

Read more
I tried the future of mobile gaming. Here’s the good, bad, and scary
Title screen for Resident Evil Village on iPad Pro.

I’ve never had a gaming experience more terrifying than Resident Evil: Village on a mobile device. I began my voyage into the mobile world of horror gaming with the arrival of zombie games like Dead Trigger. It's still fun but a far cry from the game visuals suited for 2023.

In the past five years, mobile game standards have risen, but they are nowhere near the experience on consoles and PCs. Many factors are to blame here, including the consistently rising standards of gaming engines breaking new grounds for visual fidelity and immersion — all of which are quite taxing on the system resources, especially for mobile silicon.

Read more
T-Mobile still has the fastest 5G, but its rivals are catching up
T-Mobile smartphone.

For most of 2023, we’ve seen median 5G speeds among the big three carriers remain fairly stable, leading us to believe that things were beginning to reach a plateau. However, it now seems that this may only be true at the very top end of the 5G speed race.

Today, Ookla released its latest market research on 5G speeds for the third quarter of 2023, and it’s an interesting mix of surprising and not-so-surprising developments in the 5G market.

Read more