Updated October 2026: This post has been expanded from its original January 2014 version from a one-line news link into a full account of why BlackBerry opened its phones to Android apps, how the strategy played out, and what it says about app ecosystems. It is a historical account; details describe the time it covers, not today.
In January 2014, BlackBerry was preparing a software update that, a few years earlier, would have been hard to imagine. Version 10.2.1 of its BlackBerry 10 operating system would let owners install ordinary Android apps directly, using the standard Android package files, without first converting them into BlackBerry’s own format. This blog noted the news at the time in a single sentence.
This expanded version looks at the business story behind that update. BlackBerry was not just adding a feature. It was trying to solve a problem that no amount of good hardware or clever software could fix on its own: a shortage of apps. Over the next two years, the company moved from tolerating Android apps, to partnering with Amazon to supply them, to building Android phones of its own, and finally to leaving the phone-making business entirely.
Where BlackBerry stood at the start of 2014
BlackBerry 10 had launched on January 30, 2013, alongside the Z10 touchscreen phone and the keyboard-equipped Q10. It was a completely new operating system, built to replace the older BlackBerry OS that had made the company famous for email on the go. The problem was that buyers had already moved on.
Research firm Gartner’s figures for 2013, published in February 2014, showed how lopsided the market had become. Android phones made up more than three-quarters of all smartphones sold worldwide that year. BlackBerry’s share had fallen to 1.9%, down from 5.0% the year before, even as the overall market grew by more than 40%.
| Platform | 2012 units (millions) | 2012 share | 2013 units (millions) | 2013 share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android | 451.6 | 66.4% | 758.7 | 78.4% |
| iOS | 130.1 | 19.1% | 150.8 | 15.6% |
| Microsoft | 16.9 | 2.5% | 30.8 | 3.2% |
| BlackBerry | 34.2 | 5.0% | 18.6 | 1.9% |
| All smartphones | 680.1 | 100% | 967.8 | 100% |
Source: Gartner via GSMArena. Units rounded to one decimal place.
The company was also in leadership turmoil. On November 4, 2013, a planned buyout led by investor Fairfax Financial fell apart. BlackBerry instead raised about $1 billion by selling convertible debt to Fairfax and other investors, chief executive Thorsten Heins stepped down, and John Chen, the former head of database company Sybase, took over as interim CEO and executive chairman.
The app gap
Smartphone buyers in 2013 increasingly chose a platform based on what apps it could run. Every new user made a platform more attractive to developers, and every new app made it more attractive to users. Android and iOS were on the winning side of that loop. BlackBerry 10 was on the losing side: with a small and shrinking audience, many major developers saw little reason to build and maintain a separate BlackBerry version of their app.
BlackBerry had already tried to shortcut the problem. Before 10.2.1, BlackBerry 10 already included a compatibility layer, the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Applications, that could run many Android apps. But developers or users had to repackage Android’s .apk files into BlackBerry’s .bar format first, and sideloading them required enabling developer mode. That was fine for enthusiasts and not much use to anyone else.
What 10.2.1 changed
In November 2013, BlackBerry’s developer blog announced that the next release would remove the conversion step. With BlackBerry 10.2.1, .apk files could be installed over the air directly on a BlackBerry 10 phone. The Register reported that the updated runtime supported Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean apps and, thanks to hardware acceleration added in the previous release, could run them at close to native speed.
BlackBerry pitched this mainly as a convenience for developers. A developer could test an existing Android app on a BlackBerry phone as-is and, if it worked well, repackage it and submit it to the BlackBerry World store. In practice, it also meant that owners could install Android apps obtained from other sources with far less effort than before. BlackBerry announced the release in late January 2014, and OSnews reported it on February 1, noting that APK files could now be installed as they were.
The strategic trade-off
Commentators saw both sides of the move right away. In the short term, it made BlackBerry 10 phones more useful. In the long term, it gave developers even less reason to write native BlackBerry apps, because an Android version would run well enough. The Register compared it to IBM’s OS/2 in the 1990s, a technically capable system whose ability to run Windows and DOS software undermined the case for writing OS/2 software at all. There was also a security question: apps from outside BlackBerry’s store had not been vetted, which sat awkwardly with a brand built on security.
What happened next
The Amazon Appstore deal (June 2014)
Opening the door to Android apps did not fix the fundamental issue that BlackBerry phones lacked Google Play, the main Android app store. On June 18, 2014, BlackBerry announced the next best thing: a licensing agreement to bring Amazon’s Appstore to BlackBerry 10 with the 10.3 release that fall. Amazon’s store offered more than 240,000 Android apps worldwide, including well-known names such as Netflix, Pinterest, Groupon, Candy Crush Saga, and Minecraft.
John Chen framed the deal as a way to stop spending scarce resources on an app marketplace. He told reporters he wanted to turn the company around financially and focus on the enterprise market, and TechCrunch reported his view that BlackBerry lacked the time, energy, and money to build a full app ecosystem on its own. BlackBerry said its own developer outreach would concentrate on enterprise and productivity apps instead. BlackBerry 10.3 shipped on October 10, 2014, with the square-screened Passport, bundling the Amazon Appstore and an updated Android 4.3 runtime.
An Android BlackBerry (2015)
The logical end point arrived the next year. On September 25, 2015, Chen formally announced the Priv, a slider phone with a physical keyboard that ran Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Google Play and BlackBerry’s own security features added. It went on sale on November 6, 2015. It was the first BlackBerry phone not to run a BlackBerry operating system, and BlackBerry chose Android specifically to get access to Google’s app ecosystem. Sales were modest: about 650,000 units in the quarter ending February 29, 2016, below the company’s projection of 800,000.
Leaving hardware (2016)
On September 28, 2016, BlackBerry said it would stop designing and building phones itself. Partners would license the BlackBerry brand and software and handle the hardware, while BlackBerry concentrated on software. The company had sold about 400,000 phones in the quarter ended August 31, 2016. Later BlackBerry-branded Android phones were designed by TCL. The Priv turned out to be the last phone BlackBerry designed in-house.
The end of BlackBerry 10 (2022)
BlackBerry eventually shut down the legacy infrastructure for its own operating systems. On January 4, 2022, it ended services for BlackBerry 7.1 and earlier, BlackBerry 10, and the PlayBook tablet OS. The company warned that after that date those devices would no longer reliably handle data, calls, texting, or even emergency 911 calls.
- January 30, 2013
BlackBerry 10 launches with the Z10 and Q10. - November 4, 2013
Fairfax buyout collapses; $1 billion investment; John Chen named interim CEO. - November 2013
BlackBerry announces that 10.2.1 will install Android .apk files directly. - Late January 2014
BlackBerry 10.2.1 is released with direct APK installation. - June 18, 2014
Amazon Appstore deal announced for BlackBerry 10.3. - October 10, 2014
BlackBerry 10.3 arrives with the Passport and the Amazon Appstore. - November 6, 2015
The Android-powered Priv goes on sale. - September 28, 2016
BlackBerry says it will stop developing phone hardware in-house. - January 4, 2022
Legacy services for BlackBerry 10 and older systems end.
Why it mattered
BlackBerry’s Android experiment is a clear case study in how platform markets work. A few lessons stand out:
- Compatibility can buy time but rarely builds an ecosystem. Running another platform’s apps made BlackBerry 10 phones more useful, but it did not give developers a reason to build for BlackBerry specifically.
- The store matters as much as the apps. Even with a capable Android runtime, BB10 phones lacked Google Play and the services many apps depended on. The Amazon deal helped, but it could not fully close that gap.
- Focus follows the money. Under Chen, BlackBerry treated the consumer app race as a contest it could not win and redirected effort toward enterprise software and security, the business it kept after phones.
- Old devices eventually lose their infrastructure. The 2022 shutdown showed that phones depending on a company’s own servers can stop working properly once that company moves on.
What this means for you today
If you still have a BlackBerry 10 phone in a drawer, it is best treated as a collector’s item, not a working phone. BlackBerry said in its end-of-life notice that these devices would no longer reliably function for data, calls, texts, or 911 after January 4, 2022, and they no longer receive updates. Before recycling or selling one, remove any SIM or memory card and reset it to factory settings so your old messages and contacts are not left on it. More broadly, when choosing any phone, tablet, or smart device, check how long the maker promises software and security updates; that support period matters more than any single feature.
The bottom line
The January 2014 headline about Android apps coming to BlackBerry marked the moment BlackBerry admitted it could not win the app race on its own terms. Direct APK installation in 10.2.1, the Amazon Appstore in 10.3, and finally an Android phone were successive steps toward the same conclusion. Within three years, the company that had defined the smartphone for business users had stopped making phones and turned its attention to software.
Sources
- BlackBerry Developer Blog: Upping our game for Android support (Nov 2013)
- The Register: BlackBerry supercharges its Android runtime (Nov 19, 2013)
- OSnews: BlackBerry 10.2.1 released (Feb 1, 2014)
- GSMArena: Gartner 2013 smartphone sales by OS (Feb 13, 2014)
- TechCrunch: BlackBerry takes $1B investment, replaces CEO (Nov 4, 2013)
- BlackBerry press release: Amazon Appstore coming to BlackBerry 10 (June 18, 2014)
- TechCrunch: BlackBerry turns to Amazon to fix its app problem (June 18, 2014)
- Wikipedia: BlackBerry 10
- Wikipedia: BlackBerry Priv
- BNN Bloomberg: BlackBerry to end internal hardware development (Sept 28, 2016)
- BlackBerry: End of life for legacy services
Top image: "BlackBerry Z10" by Enrique Dans, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized). Charts by Thank You Robot.
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