Microsoft’s Bing to Be Default Search Engine on BlackBerry
May 03, 2011, 4:35 PM EDTBy Hugo Miller
(Updates share prices in sixth paragraph.)
May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.’s Bing will be the default search engine and map application on Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry smartphones, a boon for the software maker as it seeks expand in mobile devices and catch up with Google Inc.
Bing will be “deeply integrated” into the devices, creating “unique experiences for millions of BlackBerry customers,” Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said today in an unbilled appearance at the annual BlackBerry World trade show in Orlando, Florida. He said the partnership will be ready in time for the holiday shopping season later this year.
Microsoft is trying to challenge Google, whose share of the U.S. search market is more than four times larger than that of Bing. The RIM partnership also advances Microsoft’s efforts to expand in mobile devices, a campaign that includes a pact with Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest mobile-phone maker by unit sales.
Microsoft has added search features, stepped up the marketing of Bing and teamed up with former rival Yahoo! Inc. to increase its market share. Google had 65.4 percent of searches in February, compared with Bing’s 13.6 percent, according to Reston, Virginia-based research firm ComScore Inc.
Bing will also be the default search engine for RIM’s new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, while customers will still be able to use Google, for example, if they choose to.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 15 cents to $25.81 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 4 p.m. New York time. Google, based in Mountain View, California, declined $4.67 to $533.89. Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM added 14 cents to $48.24.
Facebook, Angry Birds
RIM, the second-largest North American smartphone maker, is trying to pack more features into its handsets and PlayBook to challenge larger rival Apple Inc. The Bing announcement was one of many RIM made to generate buzz for the PlayBook and a touch- screen edition of the BlackBerry Bold it debuted at the show yesterday.
The phone maker is looking to counter mixed reviews for the PlayBook and a plunge in its share price after the company cut its sales and profit forecasts last week.
RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in his keynote speech today that the popular game “Angry Birds” will be available on the PlayBook soon. RIM executives demonstrated a new PlayBook app for social-networking website Facebook and new software that will allow BlackBerry users to use apps originally built for Google’s Android platform.
Adobe Flash
The new Bold, which has a faster browser, is designed to replace the current Bold and other aging models, which have lost market share to Apple’s iPhone and devices using Android. RIM’s forecast cut, which the company said came because new products were taking longer to develop than originally anticipated, triggered the stock’s biggest drop in 19 months.
Lazaridis demonstrated new publishing software by Adobe Systems Inc. designed to encourage magazine developers to build apps for the PlayBook. He also showed video from websites that incorporate Adobe’s Flash technology. The software, used to run video on many websites, isn’t supported on Apple’s iPad.
“We’ve done everything we can to give people the experience they expect” and “proven to the world that you can run Flash in a mobile browser,” Lazaridis told reporters in a briefing after his speech.
Best Buy Checks
RIM executives also demonstrated a stand-alone e-mail program for the PlayBook, which is planned as an upgrade this summer. The tablet was introduced last month without built-in e- mail, which has meant users can access their mail only by connecting the PlayBook to the Internet through a BlackBerry phone or by using Web-based e-mail services.
Lazaridis defended the timing of the PlayBook’s release and said RIM was focusing on getting a device that met corporate expectations for security into the hands of companies as soon as possible.
“There was so much pent-up demand for widescale deployment of tablet technology and PlayBooks in particular with enterprise and government,” said Lazaridis. “We needed to make sure they had something that they could deploy immediately.”
Store checks at Best Buy Co. stores indicate the PlayBook is sold out at about 8 percent of those outlets, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said in a research note today. North America sales are about 50,000 tablets a week, down from 100,000 the first week, said Abramsky, who is based in Toronto and cut his rating on RIM to “sector perform” last week.
“This data may suggest that PlayBook sell-through remains healthy but may be leveling off from its first week,” he said.
--Editors: Ville Heiskanen, Peter Elstrom
To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Orlando, Florida, at hugomiller@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net
