Bing on iPhone Moves Apple Away From Google
Jennifer LeClaire, Mobile Tech Today, 12/16/2009
Microsoft has launched a Bing app for Apple, Inc.’s iPhone and iPod touch as Apple appears to be moving to rely less on Google. Microsoft’s Bing app allows users to search by speaking and by images. An analyst called putting Microsoft’s Bing on the iPhone and iPod touch a wise move and said Google has become “a different animal.”
Microsoft is getting into iPhone applications. The company just launched a Bing app, approved by Apple and ready for download for the iPhone and iPod touch on Apple’s App Store. The application is free and, analysts said, may be yet another sign that Apple is moving to rely less on Google.
“Let’s talk about some cool stuff you can do with the Bing app,” said Justin Jed of the Bing for mobile team. “Our investments in voice search — you may have played with them on Windows phones or BlackBerry already — continues in our iPhone app and works great for map locations as well as old-fashioned web search.”
If a user wants to know what the weather is in San Francisco, he or she would speak “San Francisco weather” into the phone or press the mic button. Bing will serve up results on the iPhone’s display. Users can also use the voice-search function to say a full address and get results that include a map or directions.
“Bing automatically finds your location. It’s also easy to discover a new spot by category such as restaurants, banks, theaters, and choose whether you want walking or driving directions,” Jed said. “We’ve got smooth mapping action. Swipe through each step of the directions, and check out how fast the map pans and zooms … For times when you only have one hand free and can’t pinch, there is a handy zoom-out button.”
Bing App 101
When the Bing app is in use, the iPhone’s home screen shows the Bing image of the day, complete with clickable hot spots to discover related trivia. And for users who want more images, the Bing app makes way for image search with scrolling results. When users find the image they want, they can click on the preview through to the host site to see it larger.
“Wow, the interface is simply fantastic,” said a user on the Bing community blog named parsonsproject93. “One thing I had a problem with, though, was that, within the maps sector, loading the images was much slower than Google maps, and from changing to hybrid map view, it crashed the app. I also crashed the app by simply moving around. It may work great on the (iPhone) 3GS, but it may need some more optimization with the iPhone 3G. So far, it looks much better than Google’s offerings, though, so great job.”
Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret, said the early reviews for the Bing app look good. Although he suspects there were naysayers within the Microsoft camp about launching an app for the iPhone, Gartenberg called the Bing app a wise move on Microsoft’s part because of the popularity of the iPhone and the importance of mobile search and mobile location-based devices.
The Google Factor
As Gartenberg sees it, Apple is search-neutral and, if anything, may have grown leery of depending on Google too much for mobile services. It wouldn’t be a bad scenario for Apple if the Bing app performs well in its App Store.
“Google is a different animal than it was two or three years ago when it was simply providing a set of services for Apple and the iPhone and now is competing with Apple in the mobile space,” Gartenberg said. “I think it was wise of Apple to approve this application and wise of Microsoft to get this application out there and to use this as an opportunity to show some differentiation from the type of things Google offers.”
Related posts:
- Verizon Pushes BlackBerry Users to Use Microsoft’s Bing Matt Cameron, BlackBerry Cool, 12/22/2009 Verizon is now pushing BlackBerry users to use Bing as the search engine of choice...
- Mobile Bing comes over all HTML5 Bill Ray, The Register, 3/24/2011 Microsoft has revamped its mobile search offering, dropping location-based and iTunes app searching into HTML5...
- Google Moves to Keep Its Lead as Web Goes Mobile Miguel Helft, The New York Times, 1/5/2010 Google unveiled a rival to Apple’s iPhone on Tuesday, part of its careful...
In: iPhone, Mobile Technology · Tagged with: 3G