Chicago (IL) – MokaFive for the iPhone is the kind of software that easily gets lost among the flurry of virtualization announcements. On a closer look, however, it is an ingenious idea how to dramatically extend the functionality of the iPhone – an idea that easily could turn into a killer application for the phone. It allows you to install Windows applications on your iPhone and run them, if you have access to another Windows PC.

We are just beginning to understand the implications of virtualization, most of them for enterprise applications and very few of them that actually would make any immediate sense for the average PC user. Stanford University start-up MokaFive could be one of the companies that driving much more interest in mass market virtualization with its iPhone Sentinel software.

iPhone Sentinel software allows individuals to install any Windows applications or even en entire desktop onto their iPhone. Users can package files, settings and software and store them on an iPhone within a MokaFive LivePC image. While you cannot launch Windows applications on an iPhone you can run the LivePC image on any other PC pretty much like you would launch your desktop environment and applications from a USB memory stick.

Utilizing Sentinel the iPhone acts just like a memory stick. Since the iPhone’s NAND flash memory is bulk MLC NAND and not especially fast. However, MokaFive said that it has optimized its software to speed up communication and data transfer between a PC the iPhone. The software can also be used with any other phone, if you configure your phone as a USB mass storage device on your PC.

Communication with another PC requires either a USB connection or, for a more sophisticated use, can also be run wirelessly, for example via Avatron’s Air Sharing app.

Being able to create a software bundle is not a new concept; however MokaFive is presenting new and fresh technology that makes the concept better and more user friendly. It can update LivePC’s by automatically installing security patches and new features over the network. Features such as these would allow large corporations to remotely control worker’s computers, and what software or programs employees can and cannot access.

Currently, the iPhone Sentinel is not a very flexible program when compared with other software created by MokaFive. The test version of the software currently only runs with Windows XP, and you will have to have iTunes installed on any computer you need to sync with. The company hopes to ultimately be able to release a more sophisticated final version of the software sometime early 2009, MokaFive said.

You can download the software here.