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BlackBerry is one of those companies who tasted failure and decided to turn the odds in its favor. We have covered many of the company’s actions, innovations and projects in the last months and we are always keeping an eye on John Chen, because we respect his determination to not let go.
Actually, BlackBerry is doing better than before, even if it is still struggling with financial loses. Recent news coming from the company and its CEO tell us that the forthcoming BlacBerry 10.3 (due this fall) will also come preloaded with the Amazon Appstore. This means a rough 200,000 Android – based apps imported from the Amazon Appstore to BlackBerry 10.3 smartphones.
How is this a good idea? Well, it may not be some miracle, but it is a solid life boat that will buy BlackBerry enough time and energy in order to focus on its primary goal: the enterprise sector. It shone once in the corporate field, it can shine again, John Chen thinks. But for that, he needs to offer its loyal individual customers something to hold on to and something to appeal them in buying the future upgraded BlackBerry 10.3 smartphone.
Amazon Appstore is quite rich in apps and entertainment solutions current BlackBerry users don’t have much access to, as the BlackBerry Appstore is poor. While Apple and Google display millions of apps, BlackBerry can only take pride in a bit over 100,000. The collaboration with Amazon can be beneficial for both companies, Chen thinks. Sharing common interests and bringing together their legions of loyal followers might translate into bigger BlackBerry 10.3 smartphone sales for the Canadian company and loads of Amazon Prime members for the American company.
Shouldn’t be the two in some sort of competition, now that Amazon released its own 3D smartphone dedicated mostly to its own members and especially to its Prime members? Does Amazon need the BlackBerry customers? According to Chen, Amazon’s new smartphone doesn’t represent competition and the partnership between the two companies cannot be seen as a contradiction.
Our focuses are different, he said. “My devices are focused on the enterprise, highly secure,” whereas the Amazon phone is more targeted at the consumer, he said.
While BlackBerry wants to give its individual customers more opportunities and perks, Amazon will never refuse a new batch of compulsive shoppers. In the mean time, the Canadian company will focus on developing and creating security and enterprise solutions for its corporate clients, the ones it is focused on for so long:
The partnership is meant to expand BlackBerry’s current offering of games, video, music and other mobile apps to help make its smartphones more appealing to consumers, while allowing it to concentrate on developing security and other apps that appeal to the firm’s targeted corporate and government market as it tries to regain market share.
All in all, starting this fall, all BlackBerry 10.3 smartphone users will have access to over 200,000 Amazon apps. And this cannot be a bad thing, no matter how you look at it.
