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OTTAWA — In a side story to Amazon’s expected move into the smartphone business, the ailing handset maker BlackBerry said on Wednesday that it would include Amazon’s app store on its phones.

John S. Chen, BlackBerry’s chairman and chief executive, has repeatedly acknowledged that an absence of popular apps has hampered the company’s BlackBerry 10 line of phones. Candy Crush Saga players, Netflix viewers and Pinterest shoppers were among those who were out of luck if they bought a BlackBerry.

BlackBerry announced last year with much fanfare that the BlackBerry 10 phones would be able to use apps developed for Android, the Google mobile operating system, which Amazon has adopted for its phone. But apparently out of security and compatibility concerns, BlackBerry did not make installing Android apps straightforward, particularly at first. The company instead preferred that developers submit their Android apps for distribution through BlackBerry’s app store.

An upgrade of the BlackBerry operating system released in January eventually allowed users to download apps from Amazon’s app store through a process that was somewhat easier, if not entirely obvious.

The new relationship with Amazon will make Amazon’s store directly available on BlackBerry phones after another operating system upgrade, which is scheduled for this fall. BlackBerry will also help developers who have posted apps on its store to also include them on Amazon’s. It was not immediately apparent if BlackBerry had found a way to deal with apps on Amazon’s store that are not fully compatible with its phones.

Lisette Kwong, a spokeswoman for BlackBerry, said that the company would continue to maintain its own app store after formally opening up its phones to Amazon. Asked why BlackBerry had not opened its phones to Google’s app store as well, Ms. Kwong replied: “We explored, and continue to explore, various options to improve the services and user experience for our customers. This opportunity with the Amazon Appstore is the best opportunity we have for delivering a greater selection of apps for our users.”

Maynard Um, an analyst with Wells Fargo, suggested in a note to investors that the Amazon relationship was unlikely to reverse BlackBerry’s slide.

“Broadly speaking, the announcement should be viewed positive, in our view, though, whether it stems consumer churn remains to be seen,” Mr. Um wrote.