Windows Phone Trades Bing for Yandex in Russia

When announcing Windows Phone 7 last year and the new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango in 2011, Microsoft stressed a lot on the great Bing integration that its users can benefit from.

However, it appears that the company was quick to replace Bing with another search service when bringing its devices to Russia, and made Yandex the default engine on its devices.

Handsets from companies like HTC, Nokia, and Samsung are being brought to the market in this country with Yandex’ search services, which are better tailored for users there.

The main reason for the move is to make the Windows Phone devices more appealing for the local market, as Microsoft is striving to increase sales of handsets running under it.

At the moment, Nokia’s new Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smartphones are powered by the local search engine, and the same applies to Samsung’s Omnia W.

While the Samsung device was already made available for purchase in Russia, Nokia’s new devices will hit shelves there only in December.

Moreover, HTC’s Mozart, Radar and TITAN smartphones are also bound to get the new search service, via a software update expected to be ready soon.

Other mobile phones bound to arrive on shelves in Russia with Microsoft’s mobile OS on board are also expected to have Yandex loaded on them as the default search provider, and not Bing, as they would do in other markets around the world.

“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,” Anna Kulashova, director of Mobile Carriers and Service Providers Development at Microsoft, stated.

“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.”