Amazon's Android Appstore Coming To BlackBerry 76
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?
Finally (Score:4, 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!
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'excellent hardware'... I'm sorry but that stopped being the case around the BlackBerry 9000 era when it went from made in Canada to made in mexico/china. Build quality is on par with any other Android manufacturer.
As for the physical keyboard? That's really a matter of taste. Some of the alternate Android keyboards (and soon IOS too I guess) are faster once you get used to it, and yea it does take some time/practice.
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I suspect, however, that what you want is an Android phone with a physical keyboard, not a BB phone with an Android subsystem.
Is there a practical difference?
Re:Finally (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, the Android subsystem in BB sucks.
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It sure does. No access to incoming SMS. I also can't get GCM working properly. Their docs are bad and their developer forums are a wasteland.
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We get the inferior hardware from Blackberry with some Android emulation mode to run the software.
Seems a lot better to buy a pure Android solution.
It is painful watching someone still use a Blackberry.
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The real news here is that it will be bundled in their 10.3 OS. The ability to use it has been around ever since the last OS update (10.2.1). With that version, users can load APK files through their browser. Getting and using the Amazon Appstore is already as easy as searching for "amazon app store download" and installing it straight from Amazon. Then you use it just like you would on Android, when you choose and app it downloads and the OS takes over installing the APK file. Reference: http://crackb [crackberry.com]
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All the apps Amazon approves, you mean.
There are over 1M apps in the Google Play store, and 200,000 in the Amazon App Store. So you get the subset of apps where the developer got off their ass and decided to run through all the hoops in order to get their app approved (a la Apple) and listed on Amazon's store.
The benefit is you get at the big well known apps since those guys gener
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Wonder if this can be made to work on normal Android devices. Some cheapo ones don't come with Play Store. On other somewhat outdated devices, Play Store insists on updating itself to a new version that absolutely BLOWS on older hardware.
Enough for a niche (Score:1)
I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? (Score:4, Informative)
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?
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Can you define "popular" for me? Sales figures indicate they are a bit player that is even losing enterprise share. I see no indication of even a negligible uptick in sales in Canada or anywhere else. BB's value seems solely defined these days by its patent portfolio and secure messaging system. The hardware has been in a major decline for four or five years now, and shows absolutely no sign of recovery.
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When I lived in Toronto, about a year ago, I had to look hard to find anyone using an Apple or Android phone.
It was all BlackBerry - on the subway, in Starbucks, on the street - BB ruled the roost.
And the BB10 phones are *amazing*. The UI is bar none the best designed for a phone I've ever encountered.
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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?
There was a period, before Android phones not worth owning got dirt cheap; but after MS pretty much screwed up what was left of Danger/Sidekick, where blackberries were the go-to featurephone for text-crazed teens. None of the fancy enterprise stuff turned on, just BIS and BBM; but with Sidekicks mostly out of the way, they were the only game in that area, briefly. Didn't last, of course, since the carriers could get anybody to puke up a more or less functional android thing practically at cost.
I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? (Score:2)
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?
I bought a BlackBerry (Q10) for personal use -- I can enter text with a physical keyboard far faste
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Google Maps is a GREAT maps app. My point is that Blackberry devices won't run it -- it's not in the Amazon appstore.
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Waze for BB10 doesn't support the Q10 (screen too small). Maybe it supports the Z10, but if I wanted a phone without a physical keyboard, why shouldn't I just buy an Android phone and be done with it?
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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
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How long has it been since BlackBerry has had more than a negligible share of the consumer market?
[anecdote]
I recently returned from trips to Mexico City and Bogota. 'Berries were in the hands of everyone you saw, all BBMing like mad. Occasionally you saw an older Android device, almost zero iPhones.
[/anecdote]
Re: I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? (Score:2)
In my experience, most of Latin America and the Caribbean is like that. Everyone had BlackBerry and BBM, iphone and Android were nowhere to be found. I did see a couple ipads though
Market share predicted to be 0.3% by 2018 (Score:2)
Blackberry's market share is predicted to fall to 0.3% by 2018. And they will ship 50% less handsets this year than the past.
Here is the link [www.cbc.ca].
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I bought a Q10 because I wanted a keyboard. I'd never used a BB before.
I love the thing. Trying to use an Android or iPhone now drives me batty. Losing the Hub is the worst part.
Android apps on the Q10 are problematic, though. Even apps that work on the Z10 often fail on the Q10. Apparently the apps can't handle 'Is the phone in landscape or portrait?' 'Yes'. (The Q10 has a perfectly square screen.)
Screen size makes it tricky (Score:1)
The question is can they make enough money? (Score:2)
It seems like anybody can make an Android compatible phone these days so I'll assume that Blackberry has the ability to do that. Now, will they be able to sell their hardware? They have a well-established channel. However, the Android phone market is pretty competitive so the question is will they be able to sell enough and make enough profit to sustain themselves as the large company they've become?
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Save blackberry? (Score:2)
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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"
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A company doesn't want to be in the business of having to pay customers to take their products... loss leaders are fine if you are getting investments down the line, but the current status quo also means that government/businesses are not going to be willing to make major investments in new Blackberry technology on the business side either. It is only a matter of time before Apple and Google or their proxies catch up on meeting the particular needs of those customers.
Also, in some businesses and governmen
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It's probably worth noting that the Z10 is a replaced model. Previous-gen flagship phones often get insane promos when the newer one's been out for a while, and the Z30 came out last November.
And actually, if AT&T was going to charge $100 per iPhone, they may have actually made more money by giving you Z10s - retail price on the Z10 is $300 now (direct from BB), which is a lot less than an iPhone.
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Frankly, I think the day of the keyboard on a phone is gone. Yes, there are a few stalwarts left that prefer it to touch screen, but they are a shrinking group. Android manufacturers aren't interested in manufacturing phones with keyboards because they'd end up like Q10, hundreds of thousands of units taking up space in warehouses.
The touchscreen won. I doubt in ten years there will be any keyboard phones to buy.
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I read an interview with a high-up at Sprint that said the reason Android keyboard phones have died is that people no longer go to the phone store and go 'I want an Android phone' and look at features.
They walk in and go 'I want a Galaxy S5' or 'I want an HTC One' or other heavily-advertised halo phone, and never even consider other options. Not even things like non-name-brand phones which might have almost the same specs for a lot less money.
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Amazon could choose to lower the price of an application while deciding to reduce the developer's share without having to ask permission
Well, insofar as "within terms of accepted contract" could be construed as "without permission".
Also, unless it's changed recently (and I haven't been keeping track) Amazon can, and will, adjust prices but the developer is guaranteed a minimum price. So Amazon could give away the app in a bundle and the developer still gets the agreed minimum pricing
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Yep. I'd switch, but no one has yet matched their UI.
Old tech (Score:1)
Whats a blackberry? Is it like one of those old rotary dial phone thingies I've heard tell of?
too little... (Score:1)
Now, now childrens... (Score:1)
Is it too hard to believe that they could not reinvent themselves as an Android device with a robust enterprise capability set? That market still exists and that's what made them viable originally.
In retrospect they should have been thinking of this awhile back as more and more organizations simply want a better smartphone. The iPhone is the most appealing due the sandbox nature of
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If your logic held, we'd all be running OS/2 right now, and Windows would be a distant memory of some flaky OS code-named Chicago all them years ago.
In reality, bugginess is irrelevant. What counts is acceptance and penetration, and in that vein, Android hasn't just beaten BB, it's literally wiped it off the map.
Yes, I know QNX shows up in some embedded hardware (which was what it was designed for the in the first place), but as a mainstream smartdevice OS it is now officially a failure.
And honestly, I have
wow (Score:4, 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.
Let's be honest for a second here (Score:1)
This was the only logical choice.
I loved my blackberry while it was relevant. I have missed the keyboard badly.
I think Blackberry could provide some healthy competition if they Iron out android compatibility. I still have a lot of friends that use Blackberry Messenger.
Once you get used to BB10 gestures (Score:2)