BlackBerry on Wednesday confirmed that it has signed a strategic partnership with Amazon that will allow the company’s BB10 smartphone customers to access the Amazon App Store, after receiving a 10.3 software update sometime later this year.
The deal will offer BlackBerry users with more than 240,000 Android apps, which have not yet been available on BlackBerry including big names like Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, Netflix, Groupon and Pinterest, as soon as the company’s new operating system arrives this fall. BlackBerry 10.3 users will obviously have access to the BlackBerry World app store too.
“Making the Amazon Appstore available on BlackBerry 10 devices will help BlackBerry continue to meet two essential needs: greater app availability for our smartphone users and enhanced productivity solutions for enterprises,” said BlackBerry chairman and CEO John Chen in a statement.
“We’ve listened to our customers and have taken this important step to deliver on their needs, while executing on our strategy.”
Until now, BlackBerry users were able to run some of the Android apps on the BlackBerry 10 OS, but installing the apps wasn’t a simple process. With this deal, BlackBerry users can easily install the apps.
The Canadian smartphone maker said it will also be offering third-party video and music services available via Amazon’s store.
The news comes in time when the struggling handset maker is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Thursday.
Shares of BlackBerry jumped 3 percent to close at $8.29 on the Nasdaq.
