Microsoft Delivers Open-Source Bing SDK for iPhone, Mac
Microsoft delivers a Bing iPhone and Mac software development kit and makes the SDK available for download on the Microsoft CodePlex community development site. — Microsoft has delivered a Bing iPhone and Mac software development kit …
Context & Ripple Effects
This release completes a two-step play Microsoft started in June 2009, when it opened Bing's search API to developers with no usage quotas. Now it has packaged that access into an open-source toolkit for iPhone and Mac and posted it on CodePlex, its own community development site — putting Bing into the hands of developers building for the Apple ecosystem.
The timing matters because Microsoft's own mobile footing is unsettled: unconfirmed Digitimes reporting suggests it may ship two different Windows Mobile versions to phone makers next year, while the company simultaneously staffs up its first retail stores. An SDK that works natively on Apple platforms gives the Bing brand distribution on hardware Microsoft does not control — the day's other Bing news, an early end to the Double Cashback promotion after hitting its limit, hints that budget is shifting from consumer rebates toward these platform-level bets ahead of the October 22 Windows 7 launch event in New York.
First-order effects
- iPhone and Mac developers get a free, supported, open-source route to embedding Bing search in their apps, with Microsoft's earlier quota-free API terms removing the cost ceiling that usually caps such integrations.
- Microsoft gains measurable traction data on Apple platforms it cannot otherwise instrument, straight from its own CodePlex download and commit activity.
Second-order effects
- Google's comfortable position as iPhone search default now has a challenger operating below the consumer layer: if enough apps embed Bing, query share shifts before Apple ever touches its default settings.
- Rival platform owners face pressure to answer with comparable developer tooling of their own, since the marginal cost of giving away an SDK is near zero once the API exists.
Third-order effects
- Search competition is migrating from destination websites to embedded integrations and eventual default-placement deals with device makers — the structure Microsoft's SDK approach positions it for precisely because its own Windows Mobile plans remain unconfirmed and unsettled.
- If the quota-free-plus-open-toolkit model holds, API terms become the competitive weapon in search, forcing pricing power away from licensing fees toward whoever can subsidize developer adoption longest.
The trend: Search engines are fighting for distribution inside rival platforms through free developer tooling and default-placement leverage rather than destination-site loyalty.