What is a Cloud-Based Smartphone?

A couple of months ago, at MWC 22 in Barcelona, Canonical had announced its partnership with Vodafone to test a new technology that uses Anbox Cloud and the power of smart mobile networks.

Today, we’re excited to see that Mobile magazine is talking about the Cloud-Based Smartphone concept in an eight-page article “Will 5G Give Us The First Cloud-Based Smartphone?”, page 60.

Arno Van Huyssteen, Telco CTO at Canonical, defines what a cloud-based phone is in the below interview:

Anbox Cloud is an open-source technology presenting many opportunities for mobile service providers

The main advantage of Anbox Cloud is that it creates new immersive ways for users to experience 5G. As shown during the MWC 2022 demo, you could be walking on the sidewalk and reading an e-mail on your phone. Later, you get in an Uber, and continue replying to it on a larger screen there. When you leave the cab, the screen turns black, and you walk away continuing on the smartphone. This is possible, because your smartphone is not that smart anymore. This is just a simple device, with a screen, battery, baseband modem and few other cheap components.

Your Android operating system is actually running securely in the cloud, preferably a micro-cloud on the edge of the network. A device in your hand is just displaying a broadcasted video, just like you would be watching Netflix, and passing your input from the touchscreen, microphone or camera back to the cloud. Thanks to the latency of a 5G network it’s impossible to tell the difference between that and typical smartphone experience.

This is the next generation of personal computing, brought to you by Canonical. A trusted distributor of open source in telco.