A week after Microsoft Corp. started to sell its Surface Pro tablet with high-quality screen and fast dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, en emulator software gives a clear and simple way to transit to Windows 8 tablet from Google Android-based slates without losing familiar programs.

BlueStacks, the developer of App Player application which allows Android apps to run on Windows-based personal computers, has unleashed a special version of its Android emulator for Windows for Microsoft Corp.’s Surface Pro professional-oriented tablet. As a result, user experience with the high-end slate should be better when running apps originally developed for Android.

The BlueStacks App Player for Windows 8 optimized for Surface Pro will clearly make tablets running Microsoft’s latest operating system a bit more competitive on the market thanks to 750 thousand existing Android apps amid out-of-the-box compatibility with the vast library of software ever developed for Windows and x86 microprocessors. The App Player is available for download from BlueStacks’ web-site.

It is remarkable that BlueStacks has released a Surface Pro-optimized version of its Android emulation software, but not a universal solution for all Windows 8-based machines. Potentially, this means that the market of Windows 8-powered tablets remains very small and that the Surface Pro will be the most popular product there for a while.

It is also noteworthy that while there is now an emulator to run Android apps on Windows 7 and 8, there is no such an emulator for Windows RT platform, the one that Microsoft hopes will be the rival for both iOS and Android. As a result, those Android users who decide to go with, for example, Surface with Windows RT, will have to scrap usage of familiar programs and buy new ones.

Tags: BlueStacks, Android, Windows 8, Windows, Microsoft, Windows RT