VMWare lets you run Windows CE on Android

[psiphi]

App virtualization meets the mobile device

Visa mobile app runs on Windows CE, Android at VMworld in San Francisco, VMware CTO Stephen Herrod shows a Visa mobile application on a Microsoft Windows CE device that is also running virtually on Google's Android OS. The functionality allows users to run "any app on any device," the VMware executive says.

Click on Link for the Video Demo:
http://news.zdnet.com/2422-19178_22-...ml?tag=nl.e550

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I'm hoping that with tools like this, we might be able to test ROMs we have cooked without flashing our phones... Not sure how practical it would be though...

[miamicanes]

IMHO, VMware's going about it in a slightly perverse way. They'd be a lot safer trying to sell VMware for people with phones running Windows Mobile as a way of running Android apps.

Think about it: right now, Windows Mobile doesn't actually exist as a retail product an end user can go out and legally purchase to use on a device not sold with it in the first place. Kind of like the situation that existed prior to DOS 6 sometime in the late 80s -- your IBM PC came with a specific version of PC DOS, and there WAS NO legal way for someone to actually upgrade it. Everyone did, openly and as easily as typing "format /s a:", but it was still a legally awkward situation.

IMHO, there's a very real risk that VMware for Android will go nowhere commercially anytime soon, unless the market for Windows Mobile phones just completely goes down the toilet overnight in favor of iPhone, Android, and *maybe* Palm. If Microsoft won't play ball, and VMware's only target market is Android owners who want to run WM apps, VMware for Android will be shot dead by Microsoft's lawyers in a heartbeat.

Of course, its other obvious target market would be iPhone owners... but can anyone even FATHOM Steve Jobs allowing iPhone owners to run an app that opens the door to millions of apps -- all unblessed and unauthorized by Apple & AT&T? I mean, for god's sake, they've gotten bent out of shape over a COMMODORE 64 emulator worrying that it might enable iPhone owners to freely run arbitrary unsigned apps that aren't Apple-Approved(tm).

The only way VMware for Android can be safely sold without risking MAJOR lawsuits is if they officially position it as a way to test new versions of Android, and just happen to leave a few doors open so "kitchen" ROMS ripped from other WM phones can be baked into VMware-compatible faux ROMs.