The Smartphone as a thin client
People have long dreamed about using Smartphones (or their PDA predecessors) as thin clients. The primary issue with this concept, of course, is form factor and more specifically screen size. It’s just not feasible to view a remote display connection of a screen that’s, say 1024 x 768 resolution, on a screen that’s 2” x 2” or even 2” x 4” without some sort of pan and zoom technology (see the Microsoft Research article, “Zooming in on Small Displays,” for more detail on this challenge). And for all the great research that’s been done in this area (see Microsoft Research’s Deepfish browser as an example), it’s still not practical to use pan and zoom technology to view a single application meant for PC-level resolution, let alone an entire PC desktop.
However, there have been some developments in this area that I believe are very promising. Earlier this year, Microsoft research starting showing off a prototype technology called Fone+. You can read more about the technology here, but basically it allows users to connect their mobile device to a TV, keyboard and mouse. Fone+ essentially transforms the Smartphone into an entry-level PC and simultaneously solves the screen size issue as well as the major input challenge of handheld devices (micro-keyboard and no mouse). Of course, the next problem one encounters with this approach is the incompatibility between Windows applications and Smartphones, even those running Windows Mobile. This is where Virtual Client Computing and specifically server hosted VMs could really come in handy. Microsoft offers an RDP client for Windows Mobile and Citrix, an ICA client. Using one of these standard remote display protocols, a user could access their server hosted virtual desktop from any location where they have a data connection and could work normally with a full sized screen, keyboard and mouse. This, to me, seems the most feasible way to use a Smartphone as a thin client.
The only remaining challenge is how to provide a mobile user with a full size screen, keyboard and mouse (or the size of those offered in a laptop). I could envision a new class of “laptop docks” that would essentially provide these peripherals to a Smartphone. The user would simply pop their mobile device into one of these docks and they’d be off to the races. The dock could also provide peripherals not normally feasible or desirable to include in a Smartphone form factor (i.e. wired and wireless Ethernet, USB, etc.)
Jeff Fisher
Seems like the folks from Celio have come up with the solution I was looking for. It's called the Redfly Mobile Companion:
The REDFLY Mobile Companion is a sleek clamshell design that includes an 8" display, a full function keyboard, and a touchpad mouse. Measuring just 1x6x9 inches and only 2 pounds, the REDFLY Mobile Companion offers over 8 hours of battery life and boots instantly! It also adds three new features - instant VGA output, access to USB flash drives, and the ability to charge your smartphone via USB.
Celio is currently exhibiting (as is Desktone) at Citrix Synergy in Houston. They are showing how you can use the Redfly to control a Smartphone that can connect to a server hosted virtual desktop. Very cool!
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It's very interesting in concept. In fact, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did a wonderful job exploring the "vertical service" challenge in their joint interview at D5, which you can view on youTube and elsewhere on the web. The notion was that no one screen size will suffice, hence the reality that we all will most likely end up having three true screens in our life. 1. A handheld communications centric device that will be phone, map, digital wallet, cursory web browser, limited portable entertainment...however-we will not tend to edit proposals, word docs, or spreadsheets on this device given the inherent screen limitations. 2. A desktop/tablet/laptop device which we will use in production for these types of tasks (workflow), however, still will be limited in screensize for our "living" entertainment, which brings us to 3. a Full size wall display that will serve as the hub of our home based entertainment, however, will more than likely be capable of internet connectivity, gaming, music/video etc. THERE WILL BE convergence between all three architectures in that the handheld could dock to a screen for workflow, and could also dock to a large Home Screen enabling saved user profiles, preferences, apps, etc....
OK, so the debate was on screen size as an enabler to functionality and use case, however, we still need to address where the horsepower for these devices resides. Offloading processing to a central data center or to cloud based services is clearly the way the industry is moving. The removal of application contention at the device level through virtualization is best accomplished by indeed designing architectures that have the application execution existing in a data center, or in the cloud, and remove the need for configuration from the THREE SCREENS above. The devices listed above are presentation devices now, with some local processing ability, cached preferences and profiles, security settings, etc, but not a lot more. As the back end matures, we should indeed be able to use any one of our THREE SCREENS to remote into a fully functional, robust, easy to upgrade, virtual desktop. The screen size will limit the presentation of the apps and interface, however, think of the power in being able to customize this.
For example, logging into my user profile on my virtual desktop in a data center, i scroll through and select the group of services i want delivered to my Handheld (news, weather, phone, digital wallet, limited music, maps, scaled down browser, etc), then my PC-like client (word, excel, mail, etc.) and lastly my Home Based device (where i want news, TV, video on demand, online gamine, photo album screen savers, etc.)
Based on my preferences at that moment, the backend calculates my use cases, leased applications, preferred processor power, memory, storage needs, etc...and presents me with a monthly total for my suite of services. I can change any of these on the fly, and will be billed accordingly. The beauty of virtualization is its ability to monitor and meter, and therefore Charge based on actual usage of processor, memory, disk, and I/O.
I believe we will migrate from desktops as a services, to Digital Life as a Service.
There will be functionality of course baked into the resident OS of which ever device we choose, and the device will of course have limited processing ability (some more than others perhaps), however, the true robust nature of our experience with each will be the suite of services provisioned and purchased, and then delivered to us on each.
Without virtualization, this is just a dream.