BlackBerry signs deal with Amazon App Store to bring 200,000 Android apps to BlackBerry 10.3
BlackBerry has just announced a deal that will see more than 200,000 Android apps made available for BlackBerry devices via the Amazon App Store when the new version of BlackBerry's operating system arrives later in the year.
Context & Ripple Effects
BlackBerry had been moving toward Android compatibility for years, from early evidence of Android apps running on BlackBerry to a 2013 BB10 catalog in which one in five apps was an Android app. The Amazon agreement makes that compatibility a distribution strategy rather than a limited developer workaround.
It also fits BlackBerry's enterprise repositioning: in 2013 it began managing Android and Apple devices alongside its own platform, and in 2014 opened its hardware to third-party management software. A larger app catalog gives BlackBerry a more credible handset proposition while that cross-platform strategy expands.
First-order effects
- BB10 users will gain access to Amazon's Android catalog when version 10.3 arrives, reducing the number of apps they must forgo because they use BlackBerry hardware.
- Amazon gains a new device audience for its app store, while Android developers can reach BB10 users without building a separate native BlackBerry application.
Second-order effects
- Native BB10 developers will compete for discovery with a much larger Android catalog, increasing the value of cross-platform development over BlackBerry-only releases.
- BlackBerry can answer app-selection objections with Amazon's inventory, shifting more of the platform's app experience and developer distribution relationship to Amazon.
Third-order effects
- If BlackBerry continues pairing its devices with cross-platform management and Android compatibility, its differentiation shifts from an exclusive app ecosystem toward enterprise security, management, and device integration.
- The arrangement points to a mobile-market structure in which smaller handset platforms preserve device choice by importing a larger platform's application ecosystem through a third-party store.
The trend: BlackBerry is trading app-store exclusivity for Android ecosystem access as it reorients around enterprise-grade, cross-platform mobile services.