Microsoft and Blackberry have signed an agreement that will see Microsoft's Bing search engine be the standard search engine on all future Blackberrry phones, similar to Google and the iPhone.
The agreement was announced yesterday at the Blackberry World conference in Florida as CEO Steve Ballmer was invited to join the stage and announce the new agreement.
Ballmer announced that Bing will become the standard for search and mapping service for all new Blackberry smartphones, which on current sales would be 150 million handsets.
Ballmer states that rather than functioning as a stand-alone app, the Microsoft Bing search engine will be "a highly integrated solution".
Bing's voice-activated search engine, as well as the street-level mapping technology was demonstrated in a video. Microsoft said that the partnership between them and BlackBerry means that Bing Apps would get preferential placement on the BlackBerry App World app store.
Also announced at BlackBerry's conference was of new apps for the PlayBook, including video chat and Facebook and two new Bold handsets that will be using the forthcoming BlackBerry OS 7 operating system, which unfortunately comes without Android Apps and Flash Support.
Ballmer was also talking up Bing's location-based thinking which will provide relevant information to mobile users whilst they walk around there city or town.
Ballmer also took time to speak about Android, agreeing that they were increasing their foothold, but said that they’re are also frustrating the consumer with their fragmented updates.
Microsoft have previously announced a "strategic alliance" with Nokia and this looks like another step towards global mobile domination for one of the world leaders in technology. Watch out Apple! Microsoft are on the prowl.