VMware Demos Two Operating Systems On Mobile Phone

nk497 writes "Virtualisation firm VMware has demonstrated its new mobile virtualisation platform, which allows two operating systems to be used at the same time on a single device. On stage at its European conference, VMware reps used a touchscreen Nokia N800 — more of a tablet computer than a phone — with a prototype of its hypervisor to boot and run both Windows CE and Google's Android, at the same time. The firm has yet to announce when such tech will be found in phones."

Anyone else seeing a point in this?

[dremspider]

I can see it being useful for application development, maybe. That is stretching it though because usually you emulate the phone on your computer when developing, rather then using the phone itself. How many people are going to do this? Virtualization is great for somethings, but this I would say is pointless. I want my phone to work, the less the interface is relevant the better the interface is. Why would I want two different interfaces that do the exact same thing? You don't have multiple users with a phone, so that doesn't help. You aren't consolidating phones because everyone is still going to want their own phone. What can I do with this?

Re:It's about time

[Anonymous Coward]

The mobile stack is implemented as not much more than a serial port, so the virtualization layer will be able to handle it the same way the desktop version would share a modem between multiple guests. That is, it would be trivial.

Re:It's about time

[Anonymous Coward]

I know this seems useless, but this is the next major platform lock-in. Right now, switching phones is commonplace. How long do you think that will last when there's a hundred and one pieces of paid software running on your phone?