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.

BlackBerry 10 devices have always been able to run ported Android applications, but the time, effort, and know-how it takes to convert Android’s APK files into BlackBerry “BAR” files — then side-load them and keep them up to date — means average consumers aren’t interested in this feature.

“There is no planned support for Google Play on BlackBerry.”

But having the Google Play store on BlackBerry could take some of the strain out of that process, and allow users to install Android apps directly onto their BlackBerry device. Unfortunately for BB10 users, this isn’t part of BlackBerry’s plans.

“There is no planned support for Google Play on BlackBerry,” the company told CrackBerry. “BlackBerry World remains the primary source for trusted and curated BlackBerry applications and we continue to support open standards and open source tools so BlackBerry developers can continue to create great apps on any of the development platforms we support.”

This will surely be disappointing news to BB10 users, with BlackBerry World still lacking a huge number of popular apps. But there is a silver lining. If Google Play was on BB10, some developers may see no need to develop native BB10 apps, and this could seriously damage BlackBerry World’s growth.

• SourceCrackBerry