During the recent HP analyst meeting, their top management laid out a vision for a computing model that is quite interesting and, if implemented well, has major ramifications for the entire PC industry. Their idea is relatively simple. Create a new operating system that could be used in smartphones, tablets and netbooks, but also make that OS and all of its apps work on Windows PCs as well. With this vision in mind, HP says that it will ship close to 100 million webOS clients each year, which includes its forecast of webOS on its smartphones, netbooks, laptops, desktops and in many of the printers it ships annually.
The basic idea is that you would have a single ecosystem of apps tied to this OS and a services layer that would be synchronized together. In HP's case, the synchronization comes from a technology it calls Synergy. In principal, that means that when you change something on one app on a smartphone, it changes that data on the same app on your tablet or PC. The really big idea here is that you would have an app for some service you like, and you could use it a lot on your smartphone and that same app, with all of your personal profiles and data, will also available on your laptop and PC as well. This would give users a consistent user interface with consistent applications and links to services that, at least in theory, work together seamlessly. In this case, the key preferences and core data can be stored in the cloud and in the cross device apps.
This is a powerful concept, and HP has probably given the market a blueprint for the future of cross platform/cross device application ecosystems. HP clearly will take a leadership role with this strategy. However, I have run across a company that could deliver a similar strategy for Android. The company is called BluesStacks, and it's based in Campbell, CA. In fact, it is located in the office right next to mine. I heard about BlueStacks from some of the OEM's we deal with but had not actually met or seen the company principals or its technology until last week.
What BlueStacks has is an extremely clean approach to delivering Android as a virtual OS that sits on top of x86-based Windows PCs. In the demo, they showed me, which ironically was on a 28-inch HP Smart Touch all-in-one PC, was a full version of Android running on this Windows system. There is no dual boot needed. It loads as a virtual OS, and you can switch back and forth between them seamlessly. A user could be in a Windows app and collapse it to the task bar and open an Android app, use it, and then also collapse it to the task bar for later use.
Even more impressive is the fact that it uses all of Window's utilities. Let's say you are in an Android app and need to print something. You just go to the top of the menu bar and hit print and it prints from the Windows print drivers. Or if you are in an Android Skype application, it uses the Windows drivers to handle the audio or video calls.
The demo version was based on Froyo, but the final shipping version, which should be out this September on some partner PCs, will be based on Honeycomb. That means it will be optimized for use on touch-based x86 PCs, such as any all-in-one touch screen systems that supports Windows and BlueStacks, as well as for use on Windows x86 tablets that could switch between Windows Pen OS and Android Touch OS seamlessly.
One of the demos they showed me was on the Dell convertible, which is a laptop that has a screen that flips around and turns into a tablet. In laptop mode, it used Windows, and when in tablet mode, it defaulted to Android. And the Android apps are available in either mode.
BlueStacks' software is ultimately important to the x86 crowd. At the moment, Android and the ARM camp are advancing rapidly. And Microsoft's decision to port Windows to ARM eventually would mean that ARM could become important even to laptop and desktop vendors. However, ARM on Windows is not here yet and will not be for some time. If an x86 Windows machine can run Android seamlessly and be integrated into the Windows experience well, it gives new life to x86-based devices, since it makes them more versatile and takes some of the bite out of the Windows/Arm products on the horizon.
But what HP's webOS and BlueStacks' technology really underlines is a visionary approach in which virtualized operating systems can be used to link a diverse set of devices together in a seamless and harmonious way. And perhaps even more importantly, it can deliver a single UI and apps environment to consumers, which can be used on every one of their digital screens. The ultimate goal would be to deliver an ecosystem of webOS or Android-based devices that encompass all the digital devices a person owns. In this model, you might have an IPTV, PC, tablet, smartphone, screen on your refrigerator, screen in your bathroom mirror, etc, and all would of them have a Android or webOS that use a familiar UI and apps that work the same on each device, with all content in sync.
BlueStacks is working in stealth mode at the moment and lining up OEM deals with vendors who support x86-based Windows machines. Since it is dependent on a clean release of Android's Honeycomb version, the final release of this version of the Android OS will determine when BlueStacks' virtual version will be available from multiple vendors this fall.
By the way, the guys behind this really are engineering geniuses. In a nod to the "because we can" mentality, they also showed me Android running on Mac OS X. Pretty sure they won't find a buyer for this, but it was very interesting to see Android working on a Mac.
It is also putting together an Android on x86 consortium to back and promote the concept of being able to run Android on any x86-based system and especially inside Windows. I expect all of the x86 processor vendors, as well as most OEMs that sell Windows machines, will become part of this consortium, as it's in their best interest to back something as significant as this because it will help make their current platforms more relevant to their customers.