BlueStacks App Player Beta-1 Brings Android Apps To PCs

If you've ever wished you could get Android apps on your Windows computer, you will soon be able to thanks to BlueStacks. The company has announced that its App Player for PC has entered beta-1. App Player allows users to play full-screen Android apps on Windows XP, Vista, and 7 machines. App Player software uses the company's patent pending Layercake tech.

That Layercake tech is what allows the Android apps to run on x86 computers. App Player will also allow apps written for the ARM processor, including Angry Birds Space and Fruit Ninja as well as apps that are designed to use hardware graphics. Those capabilities weren't part of the alpha test version that was offered last year.

The alpha test was conducted in late 2011 and attracted over million users. Some of the biggest app developers out there collaborated with BlueStacks in the alpha test, including the developers behind Fruit Ninja and others. The potential market for apps on Windows computers is huge with over 1 billion devices in use around the world.

"Layercake is a disruptive technology that enables PC manufacturers to bring the best of the Android ecosystem to their customers. It also leverages the advanced graphics capabilities of AMD APU and GPU platforms," said Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, Content, Applications and Solutions at AMD (NYSE: AMD). We are excited to work with BlueStacks to make the emerging Android mobile apps market part of the broader computing arena, especially given that the beta-1 version has been localized for 10 different countries."