Mobile Clouds: Exploiting Distributed Resources in Wireless, Mobile and Social Networks

11

Visions and Prospects

Sharing is good, and with digital technology, sharing is easy.

Richard Stallman

This chapter presents visions and prospects of mobile cloud technology by shedding some light on possible future development paths. The roles of the key related players in the development paths are first considered. Moreover, enabling, supporting and complementing technologies are also discussed. New scenarios as well as novel promising conceptual applications for mobile clouds are then considered. Finally this chapter proposes a long–term vision on how mobile clouds could become one of the enabling technologies for a general-purpose, global resource-sharing concept, the supporting platform of Shareconomy.

11.1 Some Insights on the Future Developments of Mobile Clouds

Several mobile cloud concepts and concrete solutions were described and discussed in this book. One may wonder how and when mobile cloud solutions will find their way to the real practical world, and who are the key players supporting the practical development and further dissemination of mobile cloud technology. Current technology already offers the basic building blocks to practically implement mobile clouds and exploit distributed resource sharing. Modern mobile devices have onboard multiple air interfaces and increasingly powerful resources, all readily available to be shared wirelessly. Having intelligence, multiple computational and sensorial resources as well as communication capabilities is also an ...