VMware, Inc. announced plans to bring virtualization and its many proven benefits to mobile phones through the new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). VMware MVP will help handset vendors reduce development time and get mobile phones with value-added services to market faster. In addition, end users will benefit by being able to run multiple profiles - for example, one for personal use and one for work use - on the same phone.
“VMware is excited to extend the benefits of virtualization to the mobile phone market,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer of VMware. “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.”
It’s not just VMWare that gets excited about virtualization for mobile phones; Gartner research sees virtualization in the mobile space as a very promising and potentially a fast emerging market. “We predict that by 2012, more than 50% of new smart phones shipped will be virtualized. Virtualization can enable enterprises and consumers to easily manage and secure their phones and it can also help handset vendors reduce bills of materials and shorten development cycles to allow for faster releases” said Monica Basso, research vice president, at Gartner.
So what is VMware MVP? VMware MVP is a thin layer of software that will be embedded on a mobile phone that decouples the applications and data from the underlying hardware. It will be optimized to run efficiently on low-power-consuming and memory-constrained mobile phones. The MVP is planned to enable handset vendors to bring phones to market faster and make them easier to manage.
Benefits to handset manufacturers include accelerated time to market, plus easy migration to rich operating systems. End Users benefits include the ability to have multiple use profiles (like business and personal). Smart phones are quickly becoming a combination of a PC and a wallet rolled into one package. A person’s phone persona - an individuals’ collection of applications, pictures, videos, music, emails, bank info, credit card information, PIM, etc. - is becoming much richer and more valuable. Consequently, the ability to protect and migrate personas will become an important purchasing decision. VMware MVP will save the persona as a set of files so that all the applications and data on the phone can be managed as a collection of files. People can then easily move their persona to a new device making the upgrade to a new phone virtually painless. Visit www.vmware.com/mobile for additional information about VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform.
Posted under Virtualization News, Virtualization Products / Reviews, Virtualization Strategies
This post was written by admin on December 1, 2008
