BlueStacks – Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8 The next big difference could have to do with app support. AMD has reached out to BlueStacks to bring us what they are billing as the AMD AppZone Player. Essentially, this is the same thing as the standard Intel compatible BlueStacks player – which allows the use of Android apps via Windows – but it will start coming pre-installed with several AMD Windows 8 tablets in the near future and has been specifically optimized for use with AMD APUs and CPUs. While the amount of Android apps offered through the AppZone isn’t very high yet, AMD and BlueStacks hope to continually increase the amount of apps available with a lofty goal of offering around 500,000 apps. From the sounds of it, it should also work just fine with external APK (Android install) files. This will certainly help give AMD a pretty big advantage over Intel among casual consumers who don’t understand what BlueStacks is and how to install it separately on Intel. This should also help alleviate some of the complaints about Windows 8 only currently having a little over 2000 apps right out the gate (which I personally think isn’t bad at all for a brand new OS). Could AMD’s APU design and its new partnership with BlueStacks give it the chance to truly do well in the tablet space, or will competition from Intel and the ARM-based offerings be to fierce here for AMD to properly compete? [ source ]]]>
