BlackBerry 10 users will be able to run Android apps directly on their smartphones when the company rolls out new features in the mobile operating system early next year.
The feature will enable developers to easily re-purpose Android ".APK" apps for BlackBerry's QNX-based Unix operating system with no repackaging - provided that any features within the app are supported in BlackBerry 10.
The latest version of BlackBerry 10 - BlackBerry 10.2, which was rolled out in the last month - improved BlackBerry's apps compatibility with Android up to Android version 4.2. This theoretically enables BlackBerry 10 to run any current Android app with minimal adaptation.
In a recent devblog posting, BlackBerry claimed that the next upgrade to BlackBerry 10 will offer native Android apps support, as well as support for Android apps that require Bluetooth, Google Maps' v1 API MapView v1, the Android Share Framework and spellchecking.
The high level of apps compatibility is achievable because both operating systems are based on similar foundations - Android is based on Linux, while QNX is based on Unix. Android apps run in a Java virtual machine called Dalvik, which is open source and licensed under the Apache 2.0 licence.
BlackBerry is targeting developers in a marketing blitz. On 4 December, it will start running a series of webcasts intended to show them how easy it is to port Android apps to the BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps under BlackBerry 10.2.1.
While the BlackBerry apps store, BlackBerry World, currently claims some 130,000 apps, the majority of them are Android apps that have been ported with minimal bespoke changes.
The upgrades to BlackBerry 10 ought to encourage more developers to offer their apps on BlackBerry as well, although the company's current market share puts it just behind Microsoft's Windows Phone in global sales, according to IDC.
