Did Amazon Fire Throw Blackberry a Lifeline?

Amazon finally announced its long-anticipated smartphone, dubbed the Fire Phone. Everyone knows that the device comes with a new service called Firefly, which makes it even easier for users to scan and recognize items in a store and purchase them via Amazon. But did you also know that Fire allows Blackberry customers access to its App store? Is this the lifeline this troubled smartphone maker needs to stay afloat?

With Amazon on June 18 announcing the rollout of its own smartphone, dubbed the Fire Phone, the online marketplace provider has a new tool with which to sell apps. Plus it now has a neat device in which to use them, and to make purchases.

According to published reports, the Fire Phone comes with a 4.7-inch screen, a 13 megapixal camera and unlimited photo storage in the cloud. It goes on sale July 25 and includes a free year of access to Amazon’s $99 Prime two-day shipping on physical products, and content services such as streaming music and video as part of a limited-time offer.  The phone’s 3D technology displays three-dimensional images and maps, and users can scroll through Web pages by tilting the phone.

Moreover, a new service called Firefly can scan and recognize more than 1 million items, such physical products in stores, and it can do a contextual database search of virtual items such music. Users can then price-compare, and Firefly provides the ability to make the purchase via Amazon.

AT&T, the exclusive U.S. provider of the phone, is offering a 32-gigabyte version will sell for $199 with a two-year contract, which is similar to the Apple iPhone 5s. A 64 GB version costs $299 with a similar contract.

The exclusive deal AT&T received drew the ire recently of the CEO of one competitor, John Legere of T-Mobile, who tweeted “When #big (@AT&T) and #bigger (@amazon) get together, the industry feels a whole lot smaller.”

On top of the phone announcement, Amazon also gained an alley in Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, confirmed a deal on June 18 that gives it access to the firm’s Appstore for mobile devices. It too anticipates its own smartphone sales will receive a boost from apps available at Amazon.

“We can leverage what [Amazon] can offer,” while providing Amazon with access to BlackBerry’s customer base, John Chen, BlackBerry’s chief executive, said in a Journal interview.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced it had 240,000 apps for its devices in its Appstore, triple the number of apps from last year. Moreover, Amazon said it had in excess of 20 million subscribers to its Prime service, which supports two-day shipping on some items in the Amazon marketplace and access to streaming content online.

As such, Amazon has a good base from which to work app sales growth and developments through its new mobile device. But it has a long way to go to catch up with competitors.

Apple, the industry’s app giant, has 1.25 million apps in its app store, plus some 235,000 developers. By comparison, Google has 800,000 apps and 150,000 developers, while Microsoft has 160,000 apps and 45,000 developers, according to The Motley Fool.