Method and apparatus for optionally running mobile applications locally or virtually

A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor of a machine comprising memory, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

• receiving a request to execute a local application to obtain a requested local application;
• determining, responsive to the request to execute the local application, whether a remote application corresponding to the local application is available;
• responsive to a remote application being available, determining whether a data connection with a remote server is present;
• responsive to a data connection being present, determining whether latency of the data connection exceeds a maximum latency value for the remote application;
• responsive to the latency being less than the maximum latency value, determining whether memory requirements for the remote application exceeds an amount of free memory in the machine;
• responsive to the memory requirements being less than the amount of free memory, determining whether processing requirements for the remote application exceeds a maximum available utilization value;
• and
• responsive to the processing requirements being less than the maximum available utilization value, executing the remote application in lieu of the requested local application.

A method, comprising:

• retrieving, by a processing system that includes a processor of a mobile device, metadata for a remote application that corresponds to a local application that executes on the mobile device;
• determining, by the processing system, power requirements from the metadata for a data connection with a remote server that provides services to support execution of the remote application;
• calculating, by the processing system, if the power requirements for the data connection exceeds a remaining charge of a battery of the mobile device;
• and
• executing, by the processing system, the remote application, in lieu of the local application that executes on the mobile device, responsive to the power requirements for the data connection being less than the remaining charge of the battery.