Virtualizing the mobile is way different from virtualizing the server or the desktop, where in the the hardware components are almost standardized [like the keyboard, mouse , usb, LAN etc] so the hardware could be easily abstracted for any of the OS.
While on a mobile there is a multitude of hardware [like the iphone touch screen, stylus … other add ons ] and there is a very less interoperability among all the types of phones or there is very less feature set common to all the mobile hardware. One cannot use iphone gestures on a nokia phone that doesnot have a touch surface.
What drives one to virtualize the mobile ?
Not everyone can afford to supply their testers/developers with full-blown mobiles. That’s when virtualization comes into game as nearly everyone today has a computer capable of running some kind of VM.