BlackBerry 10 has to be stellar if it is to stand a chance in a world dominated by iOS and Android. To succeed, BlackBerry 10 needs apps and lots of them. Unfortunately there’s some bad news for BlackBerry 10 users: a native Instagram app will not be coming to the operating system.
While BlackBerry 10 will feature native apps from big names like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, its app ecosystem needs to be more fleshed out than just those few apps. According to AllThingsD, a close source has said that a native Instagram app will not be coming to BlackBerry 10 any time soon. The anonymous source goes on to say, “Frankly, I’m not sure there will ever be.”
While this is bad news, it’s not as bad as it could be. BlackBerry 10 has the ability to run Android apps so the company is now hard at work to make an Android port for BB10. This is a temporary solution as these Android ports are often laggy and aren’t meant to be used with the BlackBerry OS. For example, Android apps rely on the back and menu buttons, which BlackBerry 10 doesn’t have. There are gestures that replace these buttons but they may not be instinctive to users.
Even if BlackBerry manages to port the Android version of Instagram to BB10, it still needs the stamp of approval from Facebook. If the app doesn’t perform up to Facebook’s standards, the social networking giant will block the app from being available.
Although Instagram was purchased by Facebook, it has been left autonomous for the most part. Instagram currently has about 20 employees so the company simply doesn’t have enough resources to dedicate to supporting another operating system.
Be sure to read our post about what’s new in BlackBerry 10.
Source: AllThingsD
