CEO Steve Ballmer was invited to join the stage for the Blackberry World Conference in Florida yesterday to show a unity between tech-titans Microsoft and RIM – a team-up of superhero proportions whose first course of action will be to bring the Bing to Blackberry gadgets.
Ballmer was at the conference to announce that Bing will become the standard for search and mapping service for Blackberry smartphones – with current numbers of units sold at around 150-million, as the RIM were eager to reveal at the presentation. Ballmer states that rather than functioning as a stand-alone app, the Microsoft Bing search engine will be “a highly integrated solution”.
Using location-based thinking Bing will provide relevant information to the mobile user – but doesn’t this reek a little of scandal? – Especially following in the footsteps of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android being highly criticised and chastised for doing much the same recently. Is this really the best thing to be boasting about right now?
Speaking of Google, Ballmer was not shy about his opinions of the widespread usage of the Android platform. “The volumes have risen but it has caused an ensuing chaos that has frustrated consumers” says the CEO.
Microsoft have previously announced a “strategic alliance” with Nokia and this looks like another step towards global mobile domination for one of the world leaders in technology. Watch out Apple!
Check out this this video from PocketBerry.com which demos some of the Bing features on Blackberry and let us know your thoughts and comments on this or any of our blog articles at our Official Gadget Helpline Facebook Page!