With OS 10.1 beginning to roll out to the Z10 earlier today, we’re already beginning to learn more about the next major update – 10.2. According to the Android Runtime roadmap, BlackBerry is planning to upgrade Android Player to Jelly Bean 4.2.2 when OS 10.2 is released, which should hopefully improve the experience with Android ports significantly.
Currently, the Android Runtime in BlackBerry 10 is running Gingerbread 2.3.3 – a version of Android released back in early 2011. On the other hand, 4.2.2 was released in February of this year, and is the latest version of Android to-date (though that will likely change at Google’s I/O conference tomorrow). Besides the possibility of performance improvements, upgrading the runtime should improve app compatibility, opening the doors for apps which are not compatible with Gingerbread. If you’re a fan of sideloading, this is great news. The new Android Runtime will also offer hardware acceleration for improved performance, and API access to BlackBerry 10’s spellcheck, as well as altimeter readings.
The SDK will receive the appropriate updates beginning next month, when the 10.2 Beta SDK is released. The Gold SDK is planned for August, which most likely means we should expect OS 10.2 itself late in the summer or early in the autumn.
Source: BlackBerry Developer