Bluestacks, a start-up that has focused on bringing Android apps to the Microsoft Windows platform, is now bringing its Android virtualization software to the Mac, allowing applications developed for the mobile operating system to be used on Apple computers.  A public alpha of the software has been released.

The Bluestacks team was surprised to see that when they launched their Windows app back in March, they got one million downloads in just nine days!

“Our PC version took off a lot faster than we had planned for.  People are spending a lot of time on their smartphones and want the same experience on all devices,” said Bluestacks CEO Rosen Sharma.  

“By bringing Android Apps to Mac we are breaking open the Apple ecosystem, which has traditionally been closed,” Sharma said. “Also, Android is struggling because of a lack of tablet applications. Developers now have an incentive to build hi-­res apps to work on the resolutions like retina displays on the new Mac, for example.” 

But this lack of tablet applications for Android could be addressed by the new Google Nexus 7 also just announced.  The device will run the latest version of the Android operating system, 4.1 Jelly Bean, and is expected to launch sometime next month.  Pricing is also being reported to be very aggressive, going after the Amazon Kindle Fire.