BlackBerry (BBRY) said Wednesday that Amazon (AMZN) Appstore will be available on its upcoming BlackBerry 10.3 operating system for smartphones when it launches this fall, giving BlackBerry users access to thousands of new apps and games. Word of the deal comes ahead of Amazon’s widely expected rollout Wednesday of its own long-rumored first smartphone. Amazon has scheduled a press event today in Seattle at 1:30 p.m. ET to unveil what most
Smartphone manufacturing is a money-losing proposition unless you’re Apple (AAPL) or Samsung. Those top two vendors in the handset market soaked up all of the available profits in the business yet again in the first quarter, according to Canaccord Genuity. In fact, Apple (AAPL) and Samsung accounted for 106% of smartphone profits in Q1 because they made more money than the total market since other major vendors lost money, Canaccord analyst Michael Walkley said in a report Thursday. Apple and Samsung combined for $15.71 billion in operating income from smartphones in Q1, while the total market among the leading vendors produced $14.86 billion in operating income. Nokia (NOK), BlackBerry (BBRY), Motorola, Sony (SNE), LG and HTC all lost money in their smartphone businesses last quarter. Microsoft (MSFT) completed its purchase of Nokia’s handset business on April 25. And Lenovo is in the process of buying Motorola from Google (GOOG).
They were “CrackBerry” addicts — fans so devoted to the BlackBerry that being without it caused withdrawals. Madonna confessed on TV to Oprah Winfrey that she slept with her BlackBerry smartphone. Corporate leaders were equally passionate. “No one else had what they offered,” said Jack Gold, principal of research firm J. Gold Associates. “They fundamentally changed the handheld market.” BlackBerry (BBRY) was founded in 1984 in