Source: Microsoft Bing Taking Over iPhone Search
See Update below Microsoft Bing will replace Google in the next version of the iPhone operating system to be released in June, we’ve heard from mulitple sources, including a high level source who claims to have been briefed on the matter. We’re not calling this more than a rumor yet, but one thing is sure – our sources close to Google in particular are speaking freely about this as fact. In January Business Week reported that Microsoft and Apple were in talks over an iPhone search deal, and the deal certainly would be brilliant for Microsoft.
There’s been speculation around Google’s future on the iPhone since last year when the first public spat broke out between the companies over the Google Voice app for the iPhone. Android’s continued gains in market share only highlight Google’s direct competition with Apple, and the fact that so many core iPhone apps, including search and maps, are controlled by Google, has been a sore point with Apple. From that post:
Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions with Apple over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features.
But Google was rumored to be paying Apple $100 million a year for the search rights to iPhone, along with the ability to serve search ads. Apple would likely have stuck with them unless Microsoft was willing to pay as well, and it certainly wasn’t a lock that Google Search would be removed from the iPhone.
There were rumors yesterday that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would attend the WWDC event on June 7 to announce Video Studio development for the iPhone, although they were quickly retracted. Our sources on this are independent of that story.
Update: Interesting – new sources are saying “It’s more complicated than this” and not to expect Google search to be removed from the iPhone next month. Also hearing that Google isn’t paying anything like $100 million/year to Apple for the search rights to the iPhone.
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Source: Microsoft Bing Taking Over iPhone Search
AT&T looks to be detracting from the Android experience with the Backflip
Posted by Matthew Miller @ 4:28 pm
Categories: AT&T, Android, Google
Tags: Google Inc., Device, AT&T Corp., Mobile Operating Systems, Smart Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Matthew Miller
Apple must have put some major pressure on AT&T when they launched the iPhone and were able to roll it out with no AT&T crapware installed or even anything related to AT&T appearing on the phone. I purchased an HTC Fuze and Nokia E71x over the last couple of years in addition to my iPhones and both of these devices were so loaded with unremovable junk that I had to do all I could to wipe them clean and that still wasn’t enough to make them as good as they could have been. People have been waiting quite some time for AT&T to launch their first Android device and unfortunately it looks like AT&T ruins the experience yet again with what Android and Me reports as the most cripped Android experience with the Motorola Backflip.
I held the Motorola Backflip for a few minutes at CES 2010 and thought it was quite an interesting device with a back that is touch sensitive so you can control the navigation on the display. However, it is an older generation device with the 528 MHz processor and older version of the Google Android OS. We also heard recently about the odd replacement of Google Search with Yahoo! Search by AT&T. I understand it is not really a branded Google device with MOTOBLUR as the focus, but it is very strange to have a Google Android device without Google as the default search engine.
The folks at Android and Me reported on two other issues with the Motorola Backflip, including the inability to install apps unless they are through the Android Market and inability to remove any of the AT&T bloatware (reported to be something like a dozen apps). I have used the ability to install apps outside the Android Market for a few apps on my devices and in reality this is probably not that much of an issue. You know my feelings on AT&T bloatware though and this is a big deal for me. I understand if a carrier wants to add apps for their services and utilities, but AT&T goes overboard and the user should have the ability to hide or remove these if they do not want to use them. I wonder if AT&T will get any more Google Android devices because this first attempt is not very promising.
What we see here on the Backflip also caused me to start thinking about what AT&T will do to ruin a Palm webOS device. An AT&T slide at CES 2010 showed that they would be getting a webOS device, but Palm has never said this and we have seen no further information on such a device. If it is loaded with more crapware, that won’t help Palm out at all.
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AT&T looks to be detracting from the Android experience with the Backflip
