Microsoft pulls Bing iPhone app for non U.S.

Three months after releasing its Bing application for the iPhone, Microsoft this week said the application was only meant for the United States and that it is pulling the app from non-U.S. versions of the iTunes Store.

“When we released the iPhone application, we inadvertently made it available to all countries in which the Apple Marketplace has a presence,” Microsoft said in a statement posted on enthusiast site Neowin.Net.

“We are planning to release international versions of the Bing iPhone application, but we have no dates to share at this time,” the company said. “Similar to our larger international strategy with Bing, we don’t want to take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, we want to be thoughtful and ensure we’re customizing the product for specific markets.”

Earlier this month, Motorola said it was working with Microsoft to deliver Bing in China in the current quarter–but on phones using the Android operating system, as an over-the-air update for existing handsets.

Microsoft released the Bing app for the iPhone and iPod Touch in December. The program includes standard searching, image search, mapping and other features.

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