Russian version of Windows Phone dumps Bing, bundles Yandex instead

Every Windows Phone that’s been sold to date has a dedicated search key on the bottom of the device that when pressed loads up Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. According to the analysts at comScore, as of October 2011 Bing has roughly 15% market share in the United States when it comes to search engines. That’s actually pretty high compared to other parts of the world, especially Russia, where Bing is estimated to have just 1% of the market; meanwhile the market leader, Yandex, sees 60% of the country’s searches going through their engine. What’s Microsoft to do, continue pushing their rejected internet service in people’s faces, or partner with the big boys? Well, according to a press release that was published the day after Thanksgiving so that no one would notice, Microsoft has decided to transform the “Bing button” to a “Yandex button”.

“Launching Windows Phone in Russia, our goal was to provide our customers in this country with the latest version of a mobile operating system integrated with the most popular local web services and social networks. Now we are pleased to announce that the services of our strategic partner Yandex will appear on a wide range of smartphones supporting Windows Phone.” — Anna Kulashova, Director of Mobile Carriers and Service Providers Development at Microsoft

Wait a minute, if Microsoft’s goal is to provide their customers with the most popular local web services, then why don’t they offer an option to let Google take over the “Bing button”? Google’s search engine market share in America is a little over 65%, which is more than what Yandex has in Russia, yet Microsoft is still forcing folks to go with Bing. That’s just not cool. We don’t mind Microsoft trying to get people to use their services, but they should at least let customers choose what happens when they click the search button on their device.

It just seems like the right thing to do.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

I’m sure Microsoft will probably just buy Yandex soon, and it will go back to Bing. This was a good experiment for MS though as it allows them to test swapping out of parts on the phone.
Manolosalinas200

that´s
probably the case unfortunately for them they can´t buy Google because they
can´t afford it.
http://twitter.com/mactoc1 mactoc

Wp7 has failed…..

Show us the numbers Ballmer.

Samsung Bada Outsells wp7
Lionprince2005

Your logic makes no sense at all. If we use your Bada outselling WP7 logic , then Nokia who sells more cell phones than any one else has done really great and IPhone and Android are failures. Bada is low end phone OS ..very cheap indeed, much like many low end symbian phones.
Be smart stop displaying your uncalled for hatred for a new OS you haven’t tried. WP7 sales will total about 12 million by end of year. year todate has surpased 7.5 million. The last quarter drop off was because of anticipation for Mango upgrade. Even I just bought Samsung Focus and HTC titan. My family has 7 cell phones ..now with 3 WP7.. you only have to use it to be convinced ..we dumped IPhone 4, 1 blackberry and 1 Android Samsung Droid charge.

Shut up mactoc.. I love you though
Lionprince2005

Nice try Stephan.. Microsoft’s Bing has between 29 5 and 31% of US searches (combine Bings engine powering of Yahoo and microsoft searches), which is phenomenal. You are not really serious when you suggest that microsoft give up it’s significant US search share to match their acquiescence to Yandex in Russia. You forget that Russian’s are a very proud people who still resist American domination and they want a say in everything. Yandex is Russian and most will swear and die by it in Russia. So Microsoft made a strategically intelligent decision. Expect microsoft’s Bing to make sizeable if not total acquisition of or investment into Yandex as they compete with Google.