Apple and Microsoft have traditionally been akin to oil and water: it has taken a virtual miracle to finally get Macs to run Windows, while Apple has gladly moved into the PC turf by releasing Safari and iTunes to PC users. In the next stage of the Operating Systems wars, the real question is which mobile OS will win out, iPhone or Windows Mobile?
Well, this entire argument is about to become obsolete now that the Citrix Receiver allows for virtualization of Windows-based applications on the iPhone. It remains to be seen what Apple’s response to the software will be, but, in reality, there is little to nothing they can actually do about it (developers can certainly find a work around to any attempt to block or patch it.) The main reason the system will hold up is that’s it’s not a native iPhone App, but, rather, utilizes a connection to the Xen App framework, which means that web connections are possible (so, unless Apple wants to censor browsing, Windows apps are on the way.)
Many users have been worried about the potential conflicting operating systems as mobile and desktop products converge; while many PC users opted for an iPhone, they found it difficult to transmit many of their data sources (Excel spreadsheets for example) to their mobile storage. If Citrix succeeds in creating a virtual Windows platform, which surely can be extended to Android and other platforms, then consumers may end up having an open choice between competing mobile platforms.
