Amazon Appstore coming to BlackBerry OS 10.3

When it becomes available this fall, BlackBerry's OS 10.3 will come with the Amazon Appstore for Android preinstalled. Amazon's offering will sit neatly alongside BlackBerry World, which will continue to serve native apps to fans of the Canadian smartphone maker's devices.

With this move, BlackBerry is heavily expanding the app selection for its handsets, allowing for easy installation of Android applications in an officially-sanctioned way.

The news comes hot on the heels of Amazon's boasting of the tripling of the number of apps in its Appstore, something that's happened in just one year. And it's rather interesting that BlackBerry is giving us this information on the same day on which Amazon is expected to unveil its very first smartphone.

The 240,000 or so apps in the Amazon Appstore will help BlackBerry OS make up for some of the difference in terms of available apps when compared to the biggest mobile platforms of this day and age.

One more thing to note is that the Music and Video sections in BlackBerry World will close on July 21. Previously downloaded content will remain available to you though.