BlueStacks brings apps to PCs, Macs The company's App Player software can run Android apps designed for a mobile phone on most computers, allowing players to experience the game on a larger display. Once installed on a PC or Mac, the software lets users operate games and other apps with their mouse, touch pad or microphone. "For PC makers, increasingly, the latest, greatest and most desirable experiences aren't available on their platforms," says John Jackson, an analyst at IDC. The team spent two years developing a way to create a virtual operating system that could run mobile apps on a computer's full screen and give users access to the PC's drivers so they could use accessories, including the mouse, to play games. Developers can put the ads within their apps in front of millions more users and entice them to buy paid versions of free apps, says Shainiel Deo, CEO of Halfbrick Studios, which makes the popular "Fruit Ninja" game. Eventually, the App Player software may also run on TVs, game consoles and set-top boxes - allowing a consumer to use a mobile app on any device, regardless of its operating system, Sharma says. "Any computer - a tablet, a phablet (a smartphone with a screen of 5 inches or more), a desktop - could use BlueStacks," says Manju Hegde, a corporate vice president at AMD.