Microsoft is making its Bing for Mobile Android app available to all major U.S. mobile operators, even as its Windows Phone 7 competes with Android for users.
Microsoft is expanding the reach of its Bing for Mobile Android app to all
major U.S.
mobile operators, even as it gears up its own Windows Phone 7 platform for
battle against Google Android.
"Since the launch of the Bing for Mobile Android App in the Verizon
Wireless Android Market, many of you asked when the Bing App will be available
from your own operators,"
reads
the Nov. 11 posting on the Bing Community blog. "We are pleased to
announce that we have just released the Bing App to all major U.S.
mobile operators through Android Markets."
Microsoft's Verizon release of the Bing for Mobile Android app came nearly
six months after it launched a similar app for the iPhone. The app offers
quick-access maps with listings of local businesses, a Favorites option, and "instant
answers" for movie listings and flights. A mic option on the app's
homepage allows for voice search.
Microsoft
reportedly paid $500 million to integrate Bing onto Verizon smartphones and
feature phones. That deal, originally announced in January 2009, gives customer
access to voice and typed queries, and location-aware searches.
"As we highlighted in August," adds the Nov. 11 posting, "Android
users can find the Bing image of the day with clickable hotspots, image search,
news, local business listings and reviews, instant answers for movies, flights
... and more."
Some 200,000 Android headsets ship daily, with popular models such as the
Droid X and Samsung Galaxy S. That represents a growing and vital market for
Microsoft's software, even as it tries to match Android with its own Windows
Phone 7.
A new report from research firm Gartner suggests that, in the 12 months
leading to the third quarter, Android saw its market share rise from 3.5
percent to 25.5 percent. By contrast, Microsoft's tumbled from 7.9 percent to
2.9 percent.
"This quarter saw Apple and Android drive record smartphone sales,"
Carolina Milanesi, a research vice president at Gartner,
wrote
in a Nov. 10 research note. "Apple's share of the smartphone market
surpassed Research In Motion (RIM) in North America to
put it second behind Android while Android volumes grew rapidly making it the
No. 2 operating system worldwide."
Microsoft hopes Windows Phone 7, launched in the U.S.
market Nov. 8 on both AT&T and T-Mobile, will reverse the decline.
TheStreet.com reported 40,000 device sales during that first day of release.
Although neither Microsoft nor its carriers seem willing just yet to offer
definitive sales numbers of their own, the general consensus is that the
platform faces a drawn-out battle against both the iPhone and Android.
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