Blackberry will cut music and video services from its world app to focus on the company's new licensing deal with Amazon.com on July 21.
The deal will reportedly add 240,000 apps to the company's lineup in the hopes the new partnership will increase sales of its soon-to-be released Amazon Fire smartphone. Blackberry, meanwhile, intends to provide users with access to Android Apps from the Amazon Appstore when it launches a 10.3 operating system in the fall, according to Blackberry officials. This will give consumers access to the Groupon, Netflix, Pinterest, Candy Crush Saga and Minecraft apps. Content that consumers previously downloaded through Blackberry World's user account software MyWorld will stay posted on the application.
"While BlackBerry World will continue to offer music and video services via third party applications - again giving you more choices for your valued content - we will be closing the music and video sections of our store on July 21st," the company said in a blogpost. "Users will be able to access video and music services through a number of popular third party services available through the Amazon Appstore and BlackBerry World."
"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 John Chen, Blackberry chairman and CEO. "We've listened to our customers and have taken this important step to deliver on their needs, while executing on our strategy."
Amazon releases the Fire smartphone July 25, company officials said. The mobile device's Dynamic Perspective custom-designed sensor can detect how a consumer grasps the phone. An auto-scroll feature allows users to operate the phone with one hand. New-age interactive apps and game exclusives are also available.
