It has only been on the market for a couple of years and since Blackberry 10 hit the market and showed that Blackberry was ready to bring a modern phone with new software to the market. The market for Blackberry has not been good over the last five years with talks of buyout and simply just cutting out of the mobile market altogether. Since the new operating system showed up with three or four new devices, the company have taken back some of the market and it looks like the newest update could mean even more for them.
Before losing so much of the market to Android and iOS, Blackberry was able to hold its head above water. Once it gained some of the market back, Windows Phone showed up and that little bit that Blackberry had, went away very quickly. Microsoft has been successful in a couple of ways including a hybrid partner model that allows hardware makers the ability to use the Microsoft software. The second way Microsoft succeeded was to offer more quality smartphones to consumers compared to if they went to Blackberry. Blackberry is looking to take the market share away from Microsoft by offering new software and more devices.
This week, the company announced the release of version 10.2.1 and coming along with it, is the fact that users can now download and install applications built for the Android operating system. Some applications could be installed on Blackberry devices in the past, but with the new software, it can be done much more seamlessly. Recent reports indicate that the Blackberry Q5, Blackberry Q10 and the Blackberry Z120 can install Android and run apps without them having to go through the normal conversion process. Blackberry might not ever be able to recover the market share that it once had, but this update could be the start of something.
The Google Play Store has more than 1 million applications and now most of them can be used by those that can install the Blackberry 10.2.1 software. Windows Phone has just a little more than 200,000 mobile applications. Blackberry 10.2.1 will also bring automatic software updates, a better battery monitor, offline reading, better interface and support for FM radios. The Blackberry Z30, Q10 and the Q5 have FM radios built in, but those with the Blackberry Z10 are not as lucky.
