RIM & Microsoft team to counter Google & Apple

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 10:41

IT Industry - Strategy

The combined might of Apple and Google/Android is creating strange bedfellows in the mobile market: in addition to its intimate relationship with Nokia, Microsoft has now teamed up with Research In Motion.

The partnership was unveiled by Microsoft CEO in a surprise appearance at the BlackBerry World event in Orlando Florida, where he announced that Bing would become the default search provider for BlackBerry browsers and maps. He was reported saying "We are going to invest uniquely in the BlackBerry platform," and "I've never been more excited about where our future is going."

Nokia and Microsoft announced in February a major alliance under which Nokia will abandon Symbian and base its future smartphones on Windows 7, adopt Microsoft's Bing for search services across all Nokia devices and services and use Microsoft adCenter to provide search advertising services.