» VIEW ALL POSTS Dec 16 2011   2:52PM GMT

VMware View Kindle Fire client coming soon

Posted by: Bridget Botelho
Amazon, Android, BYOD, desktop virtualization, iPad, Kindle Fire

VMware updated its View clients for Apple iPads and Android tablets today, and View shops will soon have an Amazon Kindle Fire client as well.

The tech previews of VMware View clients with PC-over-IP (PCoIP) support for Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux are also available. Previously, View clients for Mac OS X only supported Remote Desktop Protocol, which meant poor performance.

“We should have waited for PCoIP before delivering those clients,” said Pat Lee, director of end user clients for VMware. “But all of our clients now support PCoIP.”

The use case for running virtualized Windows OSes and applications on mobile devices using a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) client lies mostly in education — universities that want to adopt server-based desktops to deliver university apps on Macs, Kindle Fire and other student-owned devices, Lee said. And broad client device support is important to companies with bring your own device policies.

VMware has faced criticism for having a very short list of View clients, compated to competitor Citrix’s client support list, which still includes far more tablets and smartphones. There aren’t VMware View clients for the iPhone or Blackberry devices, for instance. VMware admits it must support all types of client devices in order to gain new VDI customers and will continue to grow its client support list, Lee said.

The existing clients integrate with View 4.6 and 5.0, and all are available for free to View customers. They are available from Apple’s App Store, Google’s Android Market and, for Cisco Cius users, Cisco’s AppHQ. In addition, VMware View for Linux is available to download from the Ubuntu Software Center, and the Kindle Fire client will be available in the Amazon Appstore for Android this month.