Redmond, Washington — Software monopolists Microsoft has discovered a new tactics of partnering with its competitors–has made yet another friend in the mobile sphere: The Redmond Vole on Tuesday announced that its Bing has been crowned the default search and mapping application provider for Research in Motion’s smartphones as well as the Playbook, RIM’s answer to the Jobsian iPad.
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer appeared on stage at RIM’s BlackBerry World conference on Tuesday morning in Orlando, Florida to announce the partnership, which makes Blackberry phones, according to a Microsoft blog post.
Ballmer said that Microsoft’s Bing will be the preferred search and maps choice on RIM’s BlackBerry devices, including the PlayBook, and added that the company would invest uniquely in the Blackberry platform in addition to its own Windows Phone platform.
“Bing will be tightly integrated at the BlackBerry OS (operating system) level,” Ballmer said. He described how the two companies can work together to help people make better decisions using Bing on BlackBerry devices.
He added: “We are going to invest uniquely into the BlackBerry platform,” Ballmer said according to bloggers covering the event. “Bing will become the default search provider in the browser and maps” on BlackBerry devices.
“Significant to this collaboration, BlackBerry devices will employ Bing as the preferred search provider in the browser, and Bing will be the default search and map application for new devices presented to mobile operators, both in the United States and internationally,” Bing director Matt Dahlin wrote. “Also, effective today Bing will be the preferred search and maps applications with regular, featured placement and promotion in the BlackBerry App World carousel.”
Meanwhile, Dahlin also stated that Bing is now being extended as the default search experience and map application for the newly released BlackBerry PlayBook, a RIM tablet computer which made market debut on April 19.
In essence, to highlight how the mobile landscape is transforming, the companies plan to market and promote their joint offerings as “Making better decisions with Bing on BlackBerry.”
“Devices are becoming sensors that can provide real-time access to information to help people quickly accomplish tasks on the go,” Dahlin said. “We are going to see a convergence of search, commerce, social media and location-centric services where Bing will provide the intelligence and the organizing layer in the cloud that connects a user’s intent with action, helping people be more productive.”
“We are thrilled to be working with RIM, an early leader in Internet-connected mobile devices, to help people make better decisions with Bing,” Dahlin said.
RIM’s adoption of Microsoft’s Bing search engine and maps as default options on its new BlackBerry devices, flares a surefire victory for the software giant as it eyes the booming mobile phone market.
RIM’s move, coupled with its close alliance with Adobe Systems, describes a strategy of cooperation in a mobile market now dominated by Apple and Google.
RIM’s co-chief Mike Lazaridis, in a joint interview with Adobe head Shantanu Narayen, said publishers had long functioned with Adobe and were hesitant to give up control, a complaint often thrown at Apple.
“The publishers want to be in control of their destiny, their business, their content,” he said. “I do not think they are willing to be hijacked in the way the music industry was before,” Lazaridis told a small group of reporters after his keynote speech.
During the speech Lazaridis mentioned that RIM would give out more than 6,000 PlayBook tablet computers to participants at the Orlando conference, and that the device would soon feature the popular Angry Birds game.
Global search engine leader Google dominates the Internet search market but Redmond, Wash.-based software heavyweight Microsoft is constantly mounting a challenge and they are battling over the rapidly growing smartphone market.
Besides, RIM has been facing stiff competition from Apple’s iPhone and handsets running Google’s Android software and the Canadian company lowered its quarterly earnings outlook last week on weaker BlackBerry sales.
“Microsoft is suddenly gaining some considerable traction in mobile arena as the industry seeks to counter Google’s growing dominance,” said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.
He said RIM has shrewdly gained a foothold in mapping and search without investing directly.
Aside from a financial benefit, an analyst said the deal is not likely to stop RIM’s slide. “The mobile wars will bring strange bedfellows together,” another IDC analyst Al Hilwa said.
A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to reveal any of the terms of the agreement with RIM or whether it could pose any complications to the Redmond, Washington-based company’s partnership with Nokia.