BlackBerry 10.3 Adding Amazon Appstore For Android Apps

It may be the day for Amazon's own smartphone to launch, but BlackBerry is getting in on the action too, announcing that the Amazon Appstore will be coming to its own handsets later this year. Support for the Android download store will be added as part of BlackBerry 10.3, which the Canadian company says should hit handsets this fall.

The addition means a further 240,000 titles for BlackBerry devices, as well as an opportunity for BlackBerry to leave consumer app engagement to Amazon while it itself focuses elsewhere. According to CEO John Chen, that means more enterprise features and functionality.

It also means a little work for app developers already distributing Android titles for BlackBerry phones. BlackBerry will continue to run its own BlackBerry World store, but only for apps specifically written for the platform.

Any Android titles will be diverted to the Amazon Appstore, meanwhile. The benefit there, of course, is that they'll also be available on any Android device capable of loading the store, including presumably whatever new smartphone Amazon is expected to reveal today.