Microsoft partner with RIM: Blackberries now to come with Bing Maps, MS to promote Blackberry : Updated with press release

Bing Maps on Blackberry

At Blackberry World Microsoft has just announced a partnership between the company and Research In Motion.

The deal would extend initially to having Bing Maps pre-installed on all Blackberries and Bing Search would be the default search engine, but will also include further cooperation, including Microsoft promoting Blackberry Enterprise Server to their clients and offering the Blackberry platform in addition to Windows Phone 7.

Bing Search and Bing Maps will also be the default clients on the Blackberry Playbook tablet

The deal was announced by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who told attendees at Blackberry World that Microsoft would invest "uniquely" in BlackBerry services, according to Business Insider.

Microsoft also promised further integration of Bing into the core Blackberry OS would occur around Christmas.

The move could be seen as Microsoft showing lack of confidence in Windows Phone 7, but also alternatively it could be seen as Microsoft being opportunistic and taking advantage of companies who see Google’s Android is their biggest threat at the moment and are looking for search and mapping alternatives. This motivation has prompted Nokia to adopt Windows Phone 7 in February this year.

Bing became one of the available search options on the iPhone in January 2010.

Update: See the official press release after the break:

Since we launched Bing, we’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for people to use the service from any device, anytime, so that they are never without access to Bing’s great decision tools. Today we joined with Research In Motion (RIM) in announcing some exciting news for our joint customers.

This morning at RIM’s annual Blackberry World, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced on stage a new alliance between Microsoft and RIM, outlining how the two companies can work together to help people make better decisions with Bing on BlackBerry devices.

Central to this collaboration, , Blackberry devices will use Bing as the preferred search provider in the browser, and Bing will be the default search and map application for new devices presented to mobile operators, both in the United States and internationally.  Also, effective today Bing will be the preferred search and maps applications with regular, featured placement and promotion in the BlackBerry App World carousel.

Bing is also now shipping as the default search experience, and map app, for the newly released BlackBerry Playbook. Together, we’ll also market and promote the strength of our joint offerings as “Making better decisions with Bing on BlackBerry.”

These new experiences highlight how the mobile landscape is changing. Devices are becoming sensors that can provide real-time access to information to help people quickly complete tasks on the go. We’re going to see a convergence of search, commerce, social and location-centric services where Bing will provide the intelligence and the organizing layer in the cloud that connects a user’s intent with action, helping people be more productive.

For us, this goes way beyond a “search box” and links that rank URLs representing a set of web documents. For us, it’s about finding real tools that help real people get things done. Bing is about fast decisions, combining the topical graph with your social graph – as well as the geospatial graph – to connect the real world and the digital universe like never before. Doing this on mobile devices of all sorts is incredibly important to this effort, and our work with RIM will help both companies do great things for customers.

We are excited to be working with RIM, an early leader in Internet-connected mobile devices, to help people make better decisions with Bing.

– Matt Dahlin, Director, Bing

Via ZDNet.com