Microsoft and Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion on Thursday announced they were working together to integrate the software maker's Live Search capabilities into BlackBerry handsets.
RIM users “will be able to use Microsoft Live Search as their search engine of choice as well as access Live Search on Mobile.BlackBerry.com” sometime this year, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in a statement.
But it is unclear if the partnership, which will give Microsoft access to a pool of 16 million smartphone subscribers, might help the software company secure a place in the mobile-search business, a market rich in opportunity with 3 billion mobile users worldwide.
So far Google controls the mobile-search market--just as it dominates the online search realm--with 61.5 percent of the online search market compared with 20 percent for Yahoo, according to reports from Nielsen Mobile and comScore.
To secure its lead the search king is also creating its own mobile operating system called Android, which will be released later this year through carrier T-Mobile, and is also reportedly closing a deal to become the default mobile-search engine for Verizon Wireless devices.
Yahoo is fighting to keep up in the market and on Monday it announced that AT&T would use its search as its default in its mobile web browser.
Microsoft is trying to get a piece of a pie that analysts predict will be multiplied by 10 in the next three years, with advertising spending on mobile phone searches growing to $2.35 billion by 2011 from about $243.7 million in 2008, according to Internet research firm eMarketer.
Not surprisingly, this lucrative market is very tempting to the software giant, which is loosing mass appeal. But it is unclear if the deal with RIM will help it get in the race–yet alone win it–when Google is so far ahead.
Microsoft’s stock climbed $3.53 to $27.25 in trading, while RIM increased $3.31 to $107.89.