VMWare to Bring Dual OS Virtualization to Smartphones

VMWare are known for allowing multiple desktops to run on a computer by virtualizing the operating systems. The company are now bringing the same type of software to smartphones that will allow the phones to run a couple of OS’s at the same time.

When used on a desktop you boot up in to your regular operating system and launch VMWare where you can load up another operating system within a window. VMWare want this same kind of functionality on phones allowing both a personal and a work operating system to be used on a single phone at the same time. Right now the only way two operating systems can happen is by dual booting the phone which is limited in that you have to choose one or the other OS, but not both.

‘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, Krishnamurti explains. ‘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.

As part of a demonstration VMWare were able to show a smartphone running both the Android and Windows Phone operating systems with a phone containing just 128MB of RAM. It is likely that at least 256MB of RAM would be needed to make the phones function well enough although VMWare do not believe CPU or memory capacity will cause an issue for their software to allow this to happen.

It’s certainly an interesting step forwards and could easily prevent the need for business phone users from carrying two phones around. Also if the phone’s OS’s are virtualized then perhaps backups will be far easier where you simply reload an image of your phone on to another and carry on where you left off.

Via: Coated and MacLife

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