Microsoft breaks ranks with Android app

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 4 Mar 2010 at 14:17

Microsoft has developed an app for Android, the mobile operating system of rival Google.

The Microsoft Tag Reader - which is a mobile barcode scanner - also exists on Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry, J2ME and Symbian S60 phones, but this is the first app made by the technology giant for Android.

"It’s important to give more people access to Tag because there’s huge demand for mobile barcoding,” said Benjamin Gauthey, digital marketing manager at Microsoft, on on the Microsoft Tag blog.

It’s important to give more people access to Tag because there’s huge demand for mobile barcoding

There are a number of other Microsoft apps available across other platforms, including Bing search, Microsoft MSN and Microsoft Movie Maker for iPhone.

"It is critical that Microsoft Tag is available across all of the major mobile platforms," a spokesman for Microsoft said. "The feedback on this product since we launched last year has been incredible and we want to make sure that everyone can access it."

Google and Microsoft have been increasingly engaged in direct competition, with Google launching its Chrome browser and OS for PCs, and Microsoft attempting to take on the search engine giant with Bing.

Windows mobile currently holds a greater share of the mobile OS market than its Google rival, according to Net Applications, although both fall behind the iPhone and Symbian platforms.