Device that determines whether to launch an application locally or remotely as a webapp

• US 8,355,709 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Nagaraj, Nagendra
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, PHUOC HUU
• Application Number:
  US11/739,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20080268828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,092 Days
• Field of Search: 709/318, 455/556, 455/566, 455/419
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5019 Workload prediction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

A utility program executing on a mobile communication device decides whether to launch an application remotely as a Webapp or whether to launch the application locally on the mobile communication device. The decision is based at least in part on an estimate of how much of a resource the application would consume were the application to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device. Examples of resources include battery capacity, memory capacity, and processing power capacity. If the total amount of a resource consumed by currently executing applications and the application to be launched would exceed a threshold amount, then the utility uses a browser on the mobile communication device to launch the application remotely as a Webapp, otherwise the utility program causes the application to be launched locally. The utility program has a graphical user interface (GUI) whereby utility program operation can be configured and customized.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

on a mobile communication device making a decision of whether to launch a first instance of an application program locally on the mobile communication device or whether to launch a second instance of the application program remotely as a web application, wherein the decision is based at least in part on an estimate of how much of a resource of the mobile communication device the first instance of the application program would consume were the first instance of the application to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is a cellular telephone that executes a browser program, where the browser program is used to render display data received from the web application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is taken from the group consisting of:

battery capacity, memory capacity, processing power capacity, battery usage, memory usage, and processing power usage.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the decision to launch the second instance results in a launch of the second instance of the application program on a remote computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the application program is taken from the group consisting of:

a multi-user electronic game, a video game, a video editing program, a video messaging program, and a computationally-intensive financial analysis program.

6. A method comprising:

(a) on a mobile communication device making a decision of whether to launch a first instance of an application program locally on the mobile communication device or whether to launch a second instance of the application program remotely as a web application, wherein the decision is based at least in part on an estimate of how much of a resource of the mobile communication device the first instance of the application program would consume were the first instance of the application to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device; and

(b) displaying a list of application programs on a display of the mobile communication device, wherein the application programs in the list include application programs that are executing on the mobile communication device, and wherein the application programs in the list include application programs that are being executed remotely as web applications, wherein a utility program executing on the mobile communication device determines the application programs in the list and also makes the decision in (a).

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

(c) displaying an associated list of resource amount values on the display of the mobile communication device, wherein each resource amount value in the list of resource amount values is associated with a respective one of the application programs in the list of application programs.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the decision of (a) involves determining if a sum of each resource amount value and the estimate of how much of the resource the first instance of the application program would consume exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein if the sum is determined to exceed the predetermined threshold value then the decision in (a) is that the application program should not be executed on the mobile communication device.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the utility program has a graphical user interface (GUI).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the GUI is usable to specify that the decision in (a) will be that the application program should be executed on the mobile communication device regardless of how much of the resource the first instance of the application program would consume.

12. A mobile communication device comprising:

a memory that stores a first instance of an application program and a utility program; and

a processor that executes the utility program, wherein execution of the utility program determines whether the first instance of the application program will be launched locally on the mobile communication device or whether a second instance of the application program will be launched remotely as a web application on a remote computer, wherein the determination is made based at least in part on an amount of a resource of the mobile communication device that the application program would consume were the application program to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

13. The mobile communication device of claim 12, further comprising:

a display that displays a list of application programs executing on the processor, wherein the list also includes a resource amount value for each of the application programs listed in the list, wherein execution of the utility program by the processor causes the list to be displayed on the display.

14. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein the determination involves determining whether a threshold usage value for the resource would be exceeded if the first instance of the application program were to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

15. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein no part of the second instance of the application program is executed on the mobile communication device if the second instance of the application program is launched remotely as a web application.

16. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein the mobile communication device is a cellular telephone that executes a web browser, and wherein the web browser is used to render display data received from the web application.

17. The mobile communication device of claim 12, further comprising:

a display that displays a list of application programs, wherein the list includes both application programs that are executing on the mobile communication device as well as application programs that are being executed remotely as web applications, wherein the utility program being executed by the processor determines the application programs in the list.

18. The mobile communication device of claim 17, wherein the display displays an associated list of resource amount values, and wherein each resource amount value in the list of resource amount values is associated with a respective one of the application programs in the list of application programs.

19. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein the utility program has a graphical user interface (GUI).

20. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein the resource is taken from the group consisting of:

battery capacity, memory capacity, processing power capacity, battery usage, memory usage, and processing power usage.

21. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein the application program is taken from the group consisting of:

a multi-user electronic game, a video game, a video editing program, a video messaging program, and a computationally-intensive financial analysis program.

22. A mobile communication device comprising:

a memory that stores a first instance of an application program and a utility program;

a processor that executes the utility program, wherein execution of the utility program determines whether the first instance of the application program will be launched locally on the mobile communication device or whether a second instance of the application program will be launched remotely as a web application on a remote computer, wherein the determination is made based at least in part on an amount of a resource of the mobile communication device that the application program would consume were the application program to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device, and wherein the determination involves determining whether a threshold usage value for the resource would be exceeded if the first instance of the application program were to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device;

a battery; and

a power management integrated circuit coupled to the battery, wherein the power management integrated circuit provides battery information to the processor, and wherein the processor uses the battery information in determining whether the threshold usage value would be exceeded.

23. A mobile communication device comprising:

means for storing a first instance of an application program; and

means for determining whether the first instance of the application program is to be launched locally on the mobile communication device or whether a second instance of the application program is to be launched remotely as a web application on a remote computer, wherein the determining is based on;

an amount of a resource of the mobile communication device that the first instance of the application program would consume when launched and executed on the mobile communication device, and

whether a threshold usage value for the resource would be exceeded when the first instance of the application program is launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

24. The mobile communication device of claim 23, further comprising:

means for displaying a list of application programs executing on the mobile communication device, wherein the means for displaying is usable to change conditions under which the means for determining determines that the application program is to be launched remotely as a web application.

25. The mobile communication device of claim 23, further comprising means for terminating execution of the web application on the remote computer.

26. The mobile communication device of claim 23, wherein the means for storing is random access memory (RAM) accessed by a processor on the mobile communication device.

27. A set of processor-executable instructions stored on a processor-readable medium, wherein the set of processor-executable instructions is for performing the steps of:

(a) maintaining information indicative of an amount of a resource of a mobile communication device that a local instance of an application program would use if the local instance were executed on the mobile communication device; and

(b) determining whether the local instance should be launched locally on a mobile communication device or whether a remote instance of the application program should be launched remotely so that it is usable from the mobile communication device as a web application, wherein the determination is based at least in part on the information maintained in (a), and wherein the processor-readable medium is a part of the mobile communication device.

28. A mobile communication device comprising:

a memory that stores a first instance of an application program and a utility program;

a processor that executes the utility program, wherein execution of the utility program determines whether the first instance of the application program will be launched locally on the mobile communication device or whether a second instance of the application program will be launched remotely as a web application on a remote computer, wherein the determination is made based at least in part on an amount of a resource of the mobile communication device that the application program would consume were the application program to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device; and

a display that displays a list of application programs, wherein the list includes both application programs that are executing on the mobile communication device as well as application programs that are being executed remotely as web applications, wherein the utility program being executed by the processor determines the application programs in the list, wherein the display displays an associated list of resource amount values, and wherein each resource amount value in the list of resource amount values is associated with a respective one of the application programs in the list of application programs, and wherein execution of the utility program determines whether a predetermined threshold value would be exceeded by a sum of each resource amount value plus the amount of the resource that the application program would consume were the first instance of the application program to be launched locally on the mobile communication device.

29. The mobile communication device of claim 28, wherein execution of the utility program determines that the first instance of the application program should not be launched locally on the mobile communication device if the sum is determined to exceed the predetermined threshold value.