AT&T’s first Android phone won’t ship with Google Search. Instead, The Motorola Backflip‘s home screen will sport a Yahoo Search widget, and its browser will run Yahoo searches by default. Yep. I think that’s what they call a burn.
https://gizmodo.com/at-t-finally-gets-android-motorola-backflip-arrives-ma-5474574
It’ll be the first Android device of any kind with Yahoo as the main search engine, which makes sense: Android is Google’s platform, so Google Search is a natural fit. But Android’s also an open platform, which means that carriers can do with it what they please—including denying its creator a chunk of valuable search revenue.
AT&T’s undisputed bread and butter is the iPhone, which means that appeasing Apple is high on their priority list. And it’s hard to see what other advantage this move has for the carrier other than scoring a point in their patron’s favor in the escalating Apple-Google feud.
https://gizmodo.com/steve-jobs-googles-dont-be-evil-mantra-is-bulls-5460694
There are four more AT&T Android phones on the horizon, and it’ll be interesting to see how many of them follow this same track. That’ll probably have something to do with the consumer response to Yahoo. In the meantime, the Backflip exposes a noticeable chink in Google’s Android armor: an open system is, by definition, one you can get shut out of. [Engadget via Android Community]
