Microsoft Yanks Bing App From Foreign App Stores

App Store

Brad Cook

3:07 PM, Mar. 19th ET, 2010

Articles by Author Brad Cook on Twitter Contact Author Bio

Comments (7)

Microsoft this week began quietly removing its Bing app from all versions of the App Store except the US one. A spokesperson quoted by the web site Neowin explained: “When we released the iPhone application we inadvertently made it available to all countries in which the Apple Marketplace has a presence. We noticed the error within 24 hours and took steps to remove availability for all countries except for the US.”

As Neowin noted, it’s not clear why it took three months for the app to be deleted, if Microsoft realized its mistake within a day after releasing the Bing app last December. The spokesperson confirmed that international versions of the Bing app are in the works but no release dates are currently available.

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7 Observer Comments

Khaled

said on March 19th, 2010 at 3:58 PM:

so backward of microsoft….

Lee Dronick

said on March 19th, 2010 at 4:14 PM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

What was the problem, not being in the local language?

GrahamExton said on March 19th, 2010 at 7:06 PM:

Dang! No Bing for the United King! dom. Ing.

Wwi said on March 19th, 2010 at 10:07 PM:

Maybe Apple is changing the default search on the iPhone but only OS?

WetcoastBob

said on March 20th, 2010 at 12:53 AM (Edited: 05/24/2011 12:33 AM):

@ Sir Harry: “The spokesperson confirmed that international versions of the Bing app are in the works.”

I guess that explains it. One wonders what is going on at M$ that it took three months!

Ruthven said on March 20th, 2010 at 11:11 AM:

@Wwi: Ok, that’s a possibility. But why the US market is not concerned?

trader said on March 20th, 2010 at 1:15 PM:

Either:

1. MS didn’t have the Bing app cleared for export, and the US government finally caught up with them, or:

2. The current Bing app isn’t “tailored” to local conditions (think Google in China).

As a US-based app developer, I deploy only to the US store myself. Exporting software is a dangerous can of worms, and it’s telling when even MS doesn’t attempt to export.

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