Following three months of alpha testing, software company BlueStacks has released the beta-1 version of its App Player for PC to the public.
BlueStacks's App Player allows over 450,000 Android apps to run on any PC supporting Windows XP, Display, and Windows 7 without the need for modifications or porting.
The beta-1 version incorporates the company's patent-pending Layercake technology allowing apps written for ARM processors, hardware graphic acceleration, and graphic-intensive engines such as Unity run seamlessly through App Player.
Beta late than never
During its three months of alpha testing, which began in October 2011, the App Player attracted over a million users from more than 100 countries.
Despite a limited selection of apps, over 4.5 million apps were opened with popular apps including Kakao Talk in Korea, Wordfeud in Germany, and WhatsApp in the US.
BlueStack's CEO Rosen Sharma compares the arrival of the App Player to the arrival of Rovio's Angry Birds on browsers.
"First there was Angry Birds on Chrome which was a big deal, then recently Steve Ballmer stood up at CES and announced that Cut the Rope had been ported to IE9 with BlueStacks, it's 450,000 apps coming to Windows at once."
Calling for backup
Developers are backing the beta-1 version by partnering with BlueStacks to have their apps come pre-loaded on the program included are the likes of Fruit Ninja, SliceIt!, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Townsmen, Evernote, Defender, and StumbleUpon.
"A billion PCs is a huge potential market for any developer. There is the potential to make good money from the additional app discovery and usage," said Markus Kassulke, CEO of Townsmen developer HandyGames.
BlueStack's App Player can be downloaded from its official
site.
News
Fresh out of the packaging, Tom joins Pocket Gamer with a chip on his shoulder and a degree in Journalism. Naively, Tom believes there's a star-studded career in video games and has penned words across the internet in between praying to the almighty Nintendo gods.
Related Articles
News
Oct 12th, 2022
BlueStacks affiliate programme expands to 57 countries and over 500 mobile game offers
Hot Five
Apr 18th, 2022
Hot Five: Zynga, Rovio, ustwo games, Bluestacks interviews, and how to avoid UX/UI dark patterns
Top Stories
News
May 4th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Views E10 - Brawl Stars smashes 2023 revenue, Square Enix’s extraordinary losses, and Haaland signs for Clash of Clans
News
May 3rd, 2024
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
Events
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Develop: Brighton 2024 | Europe | Jul 9th |