BlueStacks

BlueStacks
Private company
Industry Virtualization, mobile software
Founded April 25, 2009 (2009-04-25)
Founders Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf
Headquarters California, U.S, Campbell
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
  • Rosen Sharma (Chief executive officer, President)
  • Suman Saraf (Chief Technical Officer)
  • Hue Harguindeguy (Chief financial officer)
  • Jay Vaishnav (Founder & SVP of Products)
  • Yuriy Yarovoy (VP of Marketing)
  • Ben Armstrong (VP of Business Development and Operations)
Products App Player, GamePop
Website www.bluestacks.com
BlueStacks App Player
BlueStacks Client with Android home screen open as of September 2014.
Stable release
4.31.55[1]
Operating system Windows 7[2] or later; macOS Sierra[3] or later
Platform IA-32
Size 407 MB
Available in 48 languages
Type Android Emulator
License Freeware
Website www.bluestacks.com

BlueStacks is an American technology company that produces the BlueStacks App Player and other cloud-based cross-platform products. The BlueStacks App Player is designed to enable Android applications to run on PCs running Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. The company was founded in 2009 by Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf, and Rosen Sharma, former CTO at McAfee and a board member of Cloud.com.

Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, Citrix, Radar Partners, Ignition Partners, AMD, and others.[4]

May 25, 2011, at the Citrix Synergy conference in San Francisco. Citrix CEO Mark Templeton demonstrated an early version of BlueStacks onstage and announced that the companies had formed a partnership. The public alpha version of App Player was launched on October 11, 2011.[5] App Player exited beta on June 7, 2014.

App Player

The App Player is downloadable Windows and macOS software that virtualizes an Android Operating System. The software's basic features are free to download and use. Advanced optional features require a paid monthly subscription.[6] The company claims the App Player can run over 96% of the 1.4 million apps in the Google Play Store as of April 24, 2015.[7] It reached the 109 million download mark in December, 2015.[8] App Player features mouse, keyboard, and external touchpad controls.

BlueStacks for Mac

On June 27, 2012, the company released an alpha-1 version of its App Player software for Mac OS,[9] while the beta version was released on December 27, 2012. In April 2015, BlueStacks, Inc. announced that a new version of App Player for Mac OS was in development.

In July 2015, BlueStacks, Inc. released the new version for Mac OS.[10] Mac OS development and support was discontinued in November 2017.

Development for Mac OS has been restarted, as a version dated March 2018 is available from the website.

As of the release of Mac OS Mojave, BlueStacks for Mac is currently incompatible.[11]

BlueStacks 2

In December 2015, BlueStacks, Inc. released the new version BlueStacks 2.0[12] which lets users runs multiple Android Apps simultaneously.[13] BlueStacks 2.0 is also available for Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later.

BlueStacks TV (BTV)

On April 7, 2016, the company released BlueStacks TV which integrated Twitch.tv directly into the BlueStacks App Player.[14] This addition allows users to stream their apps to Twitch without the need for extra hardware or software. BlueStacks released Facebook Live integration in September 2016, allowing users to stream their gameplay to their Facebook profiles, Pages they control, or Facebook Groups they belong to.[15]

BlueStacks 3

In July 2017 BlueStacks released BlueStacks 3 based on a brand new engine and front-end design.[16] BlueStacks 3 added App Center which personalizes game suggestions, an account system, chat, new keymapping interface, and multi-instance. Multi-instance allows users to launch multiple BlueStacks windows using either the same or different Google Play account.

BlueStacks 3N

On January 19th, 2018, BlueStacks announced the release of the BlueStacks + N Beta which runs on Android 7 (Android Nougat) and claimed to be the first and only Android gaming platform to have Android 7. The majority of Android emulators run Android 4.4 (KitKat).[17] This version, still in Beta, is powered by an upgraded "HyperG" graphics engine allowing BlueStacks to utilize the full array of Android 7 APIs.

BlueStacks 4

On September 18th, 2018, BlueStacks announced the release of its latest flagship version, BlueStacks 4. BlueStacks 4 benchmarks 6-8x faster than every major mobile phone according to the Antutu benchmark.[18] BlueStacks 4 also includes dynamic resource management which only initializes the required Android libraries thus freeing resources.

Minimum Requirements

Minimum requirement for App Player for Windows include: Windows XP SP3 or higher, 2 GB or higher system memory, 4 GB of hard drive space, and a GPU with Direct X 9.0 or higher capabilities. The user also requires administrator privileges. BlueStacks clashes with the BitDefender antivirus software. An update to the latest graphic card driver version is also recommended. Newer versions of BlueStacks App Player have raised hardware requirements but offer increased performance.

Minimum requirements for macOS are: macOS Sierra or higher, 4 GB RAM, 4 GB disk space.

GamePop

On May 9, 2013, the subscription service GamePop was announced.[19] It allows users to play as many as 500 mobile games on TV. On July 23, 2014 Samsung announced [20] it had invested in and was backing GamePop. This brought total outside investment in BlueStacks to $26 million.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.bluestacks.com/download.html
  2. ↑ https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014581811-System-requirements-for-BlueStacks-4
  3. ↑ https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000736632-How-can-I-Install-and-launch-BlueStacks-on-Mac-OS-
  4. ↑ Etherington, Darrell. "After 10M Downloads, Samsung Backs GamePop As BlueStacks Adds $13M In New Funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  5. ↑ Empson, Rip. "BlueStacks Releases App Player And Cloud Connect Service To Let You Run Android Apps On Your PC". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  6. ↑ Whitney, Lance. "Android apps can now run on your PC via BlueStacks". CNET. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  7. ↑ Inc., BlueStacks. "BlueStacks Features and Comparison". Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  8. ↑ Inc., BlueStacks. "About BlueStacks".
  9. ↑ Rosenblatt, Seth. "BlueStacks ports Android apps to Mac". CNET. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  10. ↑ Facebook, BlueStacks. "New Mac Version Waitlist Signup". Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  11. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueStacks/comments/9ipvl2/bluestacks_mojave_support/
  12. ↑ "Bluestacks 2 Review in Windows 7, 8.1". TechnoIliyas.
  13. ↑ http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/bluestacks-20-for-windows-launched-lets-you-run-multiple-android-apps-simultaneously-773838
  14. ↑ "Twitch users can now live stream Android games from their PC". techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Stream Android apps on Facebook Live with Bluestacks". engadget.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  16. ↑ BlueStacks 3.0 "BlueStacks 3 powered by the BlueStacks Gaming Platform" Check |url= value (help). bluestacks.com. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Android N Comes to PC; BlueStacks Releases the First Android Gaming Platform Ever to Run Android N". gamasutra.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  18. ↑ "BlueStacks, an Android emulator for PC, gets an update with major performance upgrade". gamasutra.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  19. ↑ Empson, Rip. "After 10M Downloads, BlueStacks Takes On OUYA With Game Console And $6.99 All-You-Can-Play Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  20. ↑ Etherington, Darrell. "After 10M Downloads, Samsung Backs GamePop As BlueStacks Adds $13M In New Funding". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Samsung invests $13M in Android microgaming console GamePop". CNET. Retrieved 2017-06-13.
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