As you probably already know, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. If you are in the IT industry, these are not big news for you, as probably most of the servers in your company are already virtualized, and probably your desktop PC or laptop will be soon.
The cost reduction benefit (among others) is a clear driver when you virtualize your server infrastructure but, what is the driver for mobile virtualization?
Benefits of mobile virtualization
What mobile virtualization brings to devices is a thin layer of software that is embedded on the phone to decouple the operating system, applications and data from the underlying hardware. On top of this layer, the selected operating system can be deployed, reducing development time and getting mobile phones to market faster.
However, mobile phones are not like PC’s. They have a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) that performs critical tasks: voice compression, PIN access, base band radio, encryption,… It’s here where the different approaches to mobile virtualization differ, reaching different levels of security, isolation, stability and integration.
In my opinion, mobile virtualization has 3 main benefits:
- Convergence of corporate/personal profile
- Smartphone capabilities on feature phones (or device commoditization)
- Faster development of new phone variants and fragmentation reduction.
Mobile virtualization market
According to Gartner, ‘by 2012, more than 50% of new smart phones shipped will be virtualized’. During last year, players in virtualization industry have entered the mobile space with outstanding announcements and calculated adquisitions.
VMware, the market leader in server virtualization, presented last year his Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP) prototype that allowed two different OS to be running on the same device, only 1 year after purchasing Trango.
Open Kernel Labs, who focused on the mobile phones from the beginning and it’s now present in more than 300 million smartphones, recently announced the Motorola Evoke QA4 as the first virtualized terminal.
Citrix focused more on access to virtualized servers from mobile devices and how you can run real PC applications from your phone, like this receiver for Android.
There are a few more players in mobile virtualization, but these 3 may give you an idea of the kind of new possibilities and opportunities we can achieve with virtualization.
I foresee very interesting announcements this year regarding not only the technology, but also the business models between manufacturers, OS vendors and developers and an interesting relation with desktop as a service (DaaS) that I will keep for the following post.
In the meantime, I would really like to hear your comments about this trend.
I would add a couple other benefits of mobile virtualization. The first is actually a derivative of faster development time – lower-cost phones. Lower cost phones, through mobile virtualization can also be achieved through one particular use case, multiple operating systems using just one processor – take a look at the Motorola Evoke teardown analysis – http://www.ok-labs.com/releases/release/handset-teardown-highlights-provable-cost-savings-with-okl4-mobile-virtuali/. This can accomplished using Linux, Android, etc. Of course there are also cost benefits in multicore solutions. The other benefit is security. Isolating applications (think mobile banking apps) and drivers in their own secure cells can preserve functionality of a handset when malicious attacks are present. Read more http://www.ok-labs.com/blog/entry/what-is-secure-hypercell-technology/
Agree with Marti that low cost Android will be a driver for virtualisation. Most of the semi cos are looking at this because low cost = volume. However, a focus on reducing cost may have implications on graphics and screens as well
Recent blog at http://www.visionmobile.com goes into this some more: http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2010/02/low-cost-android-crossing-the-100-barrier/
Ben
Thank you for your comment, Marti.
I totally agree with you about low-cost phones and security as benefits and/or drivers. It’s difficult to go into details on a post of this size, so I just wanted to give a first overview of the topic.
The important thing to me is that mobile virtualization has a different range of implications that cannot be compared to PC/server virtualization in most cases.
And thank you for the links, I really like the work you are doing at OK-Labs.
Curro
@Ben: yes, again, about lowering costs as a driver for virtualization. Will it be Android the ’standard’ platform for operators and OEM? I don’t know.
And I also agree that most of users don’t care about what OS they are running. What we may see in the future is a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy, where users just select a cool device and the applications they have to run (corporate) and they want to run (personal), regardless of the OS or platform.
Very interesting post about low-cost Android, by the way.
Curro
Hi Curro,
You forgot to mention VirtualLogix as one of your 3 mobile virtualization vendors. We recently announced partnerships with ST Ericsson and Infineon at MWC 2010 and are now shipping our hypervisor product, VLX, into the market on actual phones from leading OEMs – some may actually show-up at Vodafone this year. We expect to be the market leader in truly-virtualized phones by volume in 2010 with multiple handsets coming-out. Stay-tuned!
Handol
Hi Handol,
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad to know these announcements from VirtualLogix and hope to hear more from you this year. I wasn’t trying to do an exhaustive list, but I think it’s important to explain what mobile virtualization may bring to final users.
Curro
it is really interesting blog, first time heard about mobile virtualization, really amazing. !!!
I’m glad to hear that you liked it, Devang.
I think you may find here very interesting posts and thoughts about what technology can bring to us.
Sir, I have read an article “Virtualization extends down to mobile devices”.
I want to know that can we have mobile processor with power of virtualization as PC processor?
Is there not processing power constraints, as PC have processor with 64 bits but mobile haven’t?
having virtualization in mobile can we deal with mobile s/w as like as pc s/w?
can we have multiple clones of a single s/w on mobiles?
Thank you
Atul k.Bhatia
Hi Atul,
Of course, there are power constraints, but you should think in mobile virtualization as a different concept than server virtualization, where resources are not scarce. If you watch some of the videos in the post, you’ll find a mobile phone running two operating systems at the same time, with no apparent performance problems.
Having virtualization in mobile, we can think in a more modular approach instead of a monolithic approach.
Regards,
Good job…
[...]very interesting topic, great post[...]…