When Blackberry 10 OS launched last week, it was known that they were going to support Android apps with an Android emulator. Now it's looking like runtime support is going to be upgraded soon.
Blackberry has noted that they are working on a new version of Android Runtime for Blackberry 10. The current one can only run apps for Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, but Blackberry has said that the next version will bring Android 4.1 Jelly Bean emulation with the ability to "support all current features and APIs available on the Android Runtime platform today," according to Android Community. It will also look to expand the features and APIs beyond what it currently supports.
Around launch time, it was reported that Blackberry 10 would have about 28,000 Android apps, directly ported from Android to BB10's Android Runtime, with the only changes being a reallocation of the menu and back buttons to gestures used by the new Blackberry operating system.
There's no news yet about a release date, but this is good news for both Blackberry and Android developers who want their newer Android apps ported to Blackberry 10. It's also important news for those consumers who are on the fence about Blackberry 10 because of the relatively slim app offerings, compared with iOS and Android. Blackberry 10 launched last week with about 70,000 to 80,000 apps available, compared to the hundreds of thousands offered by both iOS and Android.
Blackberry's developer tools are said to be intuitive and simple, and Blackberry is counting on developers to enthusiastically start porting. As the Blackberry 10 launch picks up speed this Spring, we'll certainly have updates for you about what apps are suddenly becoming available for the new operating system, and which ones are stubbornly absent.