Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon's Android Appstore Coming To BlackBerry

Posted by Unknown on from the qnx-used-to-be-cool dept.

New submitter Hammeh (2481572) writes "BlackBerry announced they have reached a licensing agreement with Amazon to provide the Amazon Android Appstore to be shipped with BlackBerry OS 10.3, which is due to be released this fall. The Amazon Appstore will exist alongside the current BlackBerry World, bringing more than 200,000 Android apps directly to BB 10.3 devices. As part of the announcement, BlackBerry also outlined how they will be closing the Music and Video sections of BlackBerry World, as they will be provided by the Amazon Appstore. The question: is it enough to save BlackBerry in the consumer market, or is it too little, too late?

6 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Finally by Kardos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now we get all the benefits of Blackberry's excellent hardware AND all the apps of Android. They should have had this a year ago!

    1. Re:Finally by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, the Android subsystem in BB sucks.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? by enharmonix · · Score: 3, Informative

    The question: is it enough to save BlackBerry in the consumer market, or is it too little, too late?

    How long has it been since BlackBerry has had more than a negligible share of the consumer market? These days, they seem to be almost exclusively enterprise. Seriously, the last time I can think of that anybody I know who bought their own BlackBerry was like 7 years ago. Who is using BlackBerry for personal use?

    1. Re:I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Not everyone needs to be hip and trendy. They look for the features and buy a phone at the best price that gives them those features.

      Will BB get its #1 spot again... Probably not, but if they get caught up with the rest of the world they may be able to hang on.

      20 years ago. We would say the same thing about Apple.
      People were buying PC's in droves, schools even stopped buying Apple PC. Their macs of the time while had some advanced features they were lacking in others...

      It took Apple a few years to gets its groove back.
      First Groove the iMac: All technology aside it was a decent computer that came in colorful colors, and rather easy for a college kid to pack up at the end of the semester.
      Second Groove Titanium Powerbook: A powerful laptop that came with OS X, which allowed for serious work to be done again. In a thin(for the time) case.
      Third Groove: the iPod it fit what the market actually wanted, other MP3 players were either too small in storage or too bulky. With the addition of the iTunes store it added a legal way to get digital songs without going threw questionable channels.
      Third and a half Groove: the iPhone the iPad they grew off of the iPods popularity, and changed how people think of smart phones, which caught Blackberry with its pants down.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. Re:Save blackberry? by CMYKjunkie · · Score: 2

    When your market share in the consumer market is approximately 0% "saving" is not good, what you need to do is grow market share. So the question is whether an appstore which is as good as your competitors will grow market share for blackberry in the consumer market. And I think the answer it takes more than just being as good as your competitors in one area to gain market share. Perhaps if they just put out some decent android phones that had the old (patented) blackberry keyboard then they could regain some market share from the texters that hate on screen keyboards. That is the one feature they can offer consumers that will be better than the competition. "Saving" market share only applies to the corporate and government markets where they still have market share to lose.

    I'm not sure how much an app store "saves" market share in government, but I do know cost is a factor. I am in government and just received a Z10 after having a 9900 for a few years. Our agency was looking to go iPhone, but AT&T literally gave us the devices FOR FREE and then a credit of about $32 per old device for recycling, so the net cost of going iPhone would have been $40,000 (400 devices at about $100 per) and the net cost of Blackberry was -$12,800 (technically -$52,800 if you count the "saved" $100 per device). IT described it to me as "status quo with better hardware, and we can kick the can of moving platforms down the line or until BB goes out of business."

  4. wow by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So I can have all the benefits of a closed source phone and OS, the fragmentation of Androids open source market AND blackberries compliance with the whims of 3rd world dictators? Fantastic! Maybe next they can figure out how to make the phone weigh as much as a desktop PC.