Wednesday, August 17, 2011

New Windows Tablet Can Run Android Apps?

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We've heard this one before from Blackberry right before the PlayBook was released into the wild.  And from what I understand the feature was more the undelivered.  Now ViewSonic is saying their latest Windows 7 tablet will employ 'BlueStacks'; which is an emulation layer that would provide a means of running emulated Android apps without rebooting the device.  The device will allow you to run Android 2.3 as well (looks like a vanilla version without any vendor specific UI overlays).

If you desired to run Android on the tablet, you could switch between Windows 7 and Android.  This sounds like a nice feature.  However, I have my concerns.  For one, how well would Android perform in this mode?  Second, how well will the Android Apps perform?  Third, what will happen to Android as we know it if devices start popping up basically turning any Windows 7 device into an Android Compatible device.  Would we start to see Android becoming more of an application which offers a form of sandboxing or would it remain prominent as a mobile operating system.

Of course the repercussions this feature could have probably remains to be seen to due whether or not the device sells.  And whether or not people would decide to buy the device based on this feature.  Time will tell. We'll be keeping our eye on the ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro.

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