Synergy 2011: Citrix uncloaks Android apps for Windows

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Citrix has made it possible for users to operate Android apps on Windows devices, the company announced at its Synergy 2011 conference in San Francisco today.

The virtualisation player showed how an add-on known as BlueStacks integrated within Citrix Receiver can enable Android app use on Windows machines.

Receiver is Citrix's client for managing apps running either in house or in the cloud on one interface.

“BlueStacks is aimed at addressing a market need that is only going to grow as the adoption of Android devices increases,” said Rosen Sharma, founder and chief executive (CEO) of BlueStacks.

Gus Pinto, from the iOS, Mac and Android development team at Citrix, said it was the same concept as bringing Windows apps to the iPad.

“We looked at Android and said it’s not fair these apps are confined to one form factor,” Pinto said.

The technology will be available with Citrix’s software client in beta form from the third quarter of this year.

It all forms part of Citrix’s “any, any, any” outlook, as it hopes to allow workers to access any application on any device from anywhere in the world.

Mac OS X virtualisation

In another big “wow moment” at the Synergy conference, Citrix showed how it could allow IT departments to deploy virtual Mac OS X desktop to Receiver users.

This would mean users could use any Receiver compatible device, such as a Windows PC, and run a virtual Mac OS X machine.

In a demonstration, Citrix showed how its HDX technology could power the delivery of the Apple OS for a “seamless” experience, using the example of the Angry Birds game to show how the visual and audio performance were sharp.

“For a long time we’ve talked about any, any, any,” Mark Templeton, Citrix chief executive (CEO), added.

“We’re now really pushing the envelope here.”

There was no word on when the Mac OS X virtualisation capability would be available.

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