Microsoft pulls Bing for iPhone outside US

Although Microsoft says it realized that Bing should not be distributed outside the land of milk and Honey Nut Cheerios within 24 hours of its release, it’s taken months for the company to actually get ’round to removing the iPhone search application from the App Store. What’s up with that?

NeoWin noticed that Microsoft began pulling Bing for iPhone (iTunes, free, U.S. only) from international App Stores starting on Monday.

“When we released the iPhone application we inadvertently made it available to all countries in which the Apple Marketplace has a presence,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “We noticed the error within 24 hours and took steps to remove availability for all countries except for the U.S.”

The really odd bit here is that Microsoft released Bing for iPhone back on December 16, 2009. So, although they realized their error with 24 hours, it still took three months to get Bing for iPhone removed from the App Store.

Are we looking at a foible of Apple’s unknowable and often bizarre App Store rules, or is Microsoft practicing doublespeak to cover their own butts? Either way, this is just weird…

What’s your take?

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