Priv won’t be the last BlackBerry powered by Android. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

BlackBerry has confirmed that all of the handsets it releases in 2016 will run Android.

The Canadian company has all but given up on its own BlackBerry 10 operating system following the release of Priv, its first Android-powered smartphone, late last year.

Struggling to make any significant progress with its BlackBerry 10 app catalog, BlackBerry has turned to Android developers to plug the gaping holes. The Canadian company has reportedly been courting Android app makers as it looks to provide its users with direct access to Android apps through BlackBerry World.

BlackBerry has dismissed recent rumors that claim it is planning to bring the Google Play store to BlackBerry 10 after screenshots of a BlackBerry Z10 handset running the Google Play app surfaced online this week. The Canadian company says it has “no planned support for Google Play on BlackBerry,” and that BlackBerry World remains its primary focus.

The App Store and Google Play continued to drive mobile app downloads during the first quarter of 2013, while BlackBerry World and the Windows Phone Store remain “distant challengers.”

That’s according to the latest figures from Canalys, which say a whopping 13.4 billion apps were downloaded across these four stores over the last three months, raking in $2.2 billion in app sales, in-app purchases, and subscriptions.

BlackBerry — previously Research in Motion — launched the new BlackBerry Z10 last week, the first smartphone to run the company’s new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Originally set to launch in late 2012, the Z10 has been a long time coming for BlackBerry fans, and it’s a hugely important milestone for the Canadian company.

Many see this as BlackBerry’s last hope of survival in today’s cutthroat smartphone market. It’s been rapidly losing market share to Android and iOS devices over the past five years, and it hasn’t evolved quick enough to put up any sort of a fight. But it’s better later than never.

BlackBerry 10’s here now, and with the help of the Z10 — and later the Q10 — it’s going to be trying to persuade you to give up your iPhone or Android-powered smartphone in favor of a brand new platform. But is it good enough?

I’m a long-time iOS user who recently made the switch to Android, and I’ve been really curious to see if the Z10 is any good. I’ve been using the device almost exclusively since its release; here’s Cult Of Android’s review.