Canonical is collaborating with Vodafone to test a new technology that uses Anbox Cloud, and the power of smart mobile networks, to transform TVs, computers, wearables and other everyday objects into ‘cloud smartphones’.

The prototype Cloud Smartphone will be showcased on Vodafone’s stand at MWC 2022 in Barcelona, demonstrating the concept of a smartphone running entirely on the cloud while leaving basic functionality on the device a user holds. With the use of Canonical’s Anbox Cloud, Vodafone can test a software stack that allows for the implementation of running the Android operating system in the cloud by moving all the processing to a virtual machine. Because of this, the device of choice will only need to use basic video-decoding capabilities, enabling simple objects to take on smartphone tasks. The integration with functions remaining on the physical device like camera, location or available sensors, provides the user with an environment that shows no difference to what they are regularly used to having.

The ability to offload compute, storage and energy-intensive applications from devices (x86 and Arm) to the cloud enable end-users to consume advanced workloads by streaming them directly to their device. Anbox Cloud also allows developers to deliver an on-demand application experience through a platform that provides more control over performance and infrastructure costs, with the flexibility to scale based on user demand.

Vodafone chose to work with Canonical because of its expertise in Android virtualisation – the ability to replicate and store millions of apps in the cloud with their Anbox Cloud product.

“Canonical is dedicated to enabling customers to drive new innovations and we’re pleased to have collaborated with Vodafone on the Cloud Smartphone project,” said Simon Fels, Technical Lead of Anbox Cloud at Canonical. “With the right teamwork and technology, it’s exciting to see what’s possible with 5G today”.

Similar to Vodafone’s use case, Anbox Cloud also allows for the ease of cloud gaming adoption by enabling graphic and memory-intensive mobile games to be scaled to vast amounts of users while retaining the responsiveness and ultra-low latency demanded by gamers.

Additionally, Anbox Cloud enables enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives by delivering workplace applications directly to employees’ devices while maintaining the assurance of data privacy and compliance.

Anbox Cloud can be hosted in the public cloud for infinite capacity, high reliability and elasticity or on a private cloud edge infrastructure, where low latency and data privacy are a priority. Public and private cloud service providers can integrate Anbox Cloud into their offering to enable the delivery of mobile applications in a PaaS or SaaS-model. Telecommunication providers can also create innovative value-added services based on virtualised mobile devices for their 4G, LTE and 5G mobile network customers.