Motorola Inc, the handset maker that’s rebuilding its mobile-phone business around Google Inc’s Android software, has dropped the Google’s search engine from one of its Android phones in China.
Motorola no longer includes Google’s search engine in its Zhishang device shipped to China Telecom Corp, David Wolf, acting head of public relations for Asia at the Schaumburg, Illinois-based handset maker, said in an e-mail.
Google’s decision to stop censoring its Chinese service may lead some companies to switch to rivals, such as Baidu Inc, operator of China’s biggest Internet search engine. Motorola is adding Baidu as an option on Android phones sold in the country, and this month said Microsoft Corp’s Bing search and maps service will be preloaded onto its China phones.
“If you were partnering with Google in China, your business plans have just fallen apart,” said Bertram Lai, head of research at CIMB-GK Securities in Hong Kong. “You need to scramble and find new partners.”
‘Honeymoon’
None of Motorola’s four Android phones sold in China currently carries Google’s search engine as it’s not available for license in China, Motorola spokeswoman Kathy Van Buskirk said.
“You had a honeymoon between Motorola and Google until Google developed its own Nexus phone,” said Pierre Ferragu, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co LLC in London. “The more Motorola can show that Google has to be cooperative to the handset makers, the better.” He has an “outperform” rating on Motorola.
China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd yesterday said it doesn’t use Google search on its phones, after billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Tom Online Inc said it stopped using the US firm’s link on its portal. Unicom, China’s second-biggest wireless carrier, only works with companies that abide by Chinese law, President Lu Yimin told reporters in Hong Kong. The Beijing-based operator is not working with Google currently, he said.
Chinese partners for Google’s search operations need to review their business ties because the U.S. company’s service license in China will need to be renewed, said Fang Meiqin, research director at BDA China Ltd, a Beijing-based telecommunications industry consultant.