There is one fallacy here: The 'thin' mobile client as being the future. Even though the world has moved towards thin client in the form of web clients, I firmly believe that the tides will turn - either by having the browser becoming a thick client itself (with local storage, lots of local logic) or by reintroducing native clients again - for which Containerization could play an essential role.
Imagine if we'd have a standardized container format on top of Linux, the BSDs including OSX and Windows with Cygwin - hello cross platform client applications with a single installer. Apple and Microsoft could integrate container technology in their AppStores and we could submit the same package everywhere.
The browser is already a thick client with local storage and lots of local logic. The difference is that the entire client is shipped to the browser on demand.
Ok, that's an interesting point. I'd argue that local storage hasn't really taken hold yet, i.e. the large majority of sites and apps don't work offline, but yeah, it already stretches the notion of a thin client (hence my beef about using this term on where we're headed in the future).
Imagine if we'd have a standardized container format on top of Linux, the BSDs including OSX and Windows with Cygwin - hello cross platform client applications with a single installer. Apple and Microsoft could integrate container technology in their AppStores and we could submit the same package everywhere.