More specifically, embedded virtualization confers advantage to handset developers by providing a unified software architecture to address multiple hardware designs. Virtualization lets developers segregate hardware-specific code into a single domain, making it portable across operating systems. As OEMs consolidate platforms and product lines, portability and reusability become paramount not just for efficiency, but for the OEMs' survival. Moreover, embedded virtualization mitigates risk in design and development processes for handset manufacturers, enabling more rapid response to changes in market direction.

As devices become increasingly open platforms, security grows in importance. The next billion devices will entail more complex designs, with greater connectivity and dramatically heavier network traffic. This highly-connected computing experience has a potential dark side. Connectivity and bandwidth open doors to security threats on devices and to the networks they use. Of particular concern are enterprise-connected devices. As companies deploy fleets of smartphones to conduct business, mobile data becomes more attractive to exploits and attacks.

Virtualization can alleviate many security concerns by providing an environment that encapsulates and protects mobile operating systems, device drivers, and other software stack components. In turn, securing these components increases the security of mobile applications and resident data. This encapsulation affords security beyond the handset when it's connected to other systems, from the enterprise network to the wireless operator, resulting in a safer and more reliable end-user experience.

As competition grows among handset makers and mobile platform providers, so does the importance of protecting proprietary content and programs. The mobile security challenge encompasses not just data and media, but also application software, underlying CODECs, and algorithms. IP needs protection not just from reverse engineering and outright piracy, but also from unintentionally matching incompatible software and licensing code.

From concept to reality
While virtualization technology can help realize the concept of a single device for communications and computing, there are other challenges facing handset makers. Two important considerations are making technology available and delivering enterprise applications and services to these devices.

To foster development of next-generation mobile devices, handset manufacturers need to rethink technology deployment from the lab to the marketplace. Mobile network operators and handset makers have long realized that for wide availability, easy integration, and wide community support, the answer lies in open-source operating systems; witness Linux-based operating systems like LiMo and Android, and soon-to-be-open Symbian OS. It follows that embedded virtualization should build from open source as well.

The shift to open source started with system software and today permeates the stack. But open-source adoption doesn't rest with OEMs alone. They are primarily consumers of open source. OEMs must work with the whole mobile ecosystem, reaching out to, fostering, and even creating open-source communities and initiatives. The next billion mobile devices--using open-source embedded virtualization--will pave the way for this shift.

Convergence of embedded and enterprise-application virtualization isn't about intersecting implementations. The two branches of virtualization share much but not all underlying technology; they exhibit comparable but not identical use cases; and they operate using similar mechanisms of otherwise disparate hardware architectures. Rather, the focus of convergence lies in a seamless and scalable user experience.