Motorola phones to drop Google in China

HONG KONG: Motorola Inc, the handset maker that’s rebuilding its mobile-phone business around Google Inc’s Android software, has dropped the US Internet company’s search engine from one of its Android phones in China, said a media report.

Motorola no longer includes Google’s search engine in its Zhishang device shipped to China Telecom Corp, a Bloomberg report quoted David Wolf, acting head of public relations for Asia at the Schaumburg, Illinois-based handset maker, as saying 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, which is adding Baidu as an option on Android phones sold in the country, said Microsoft Corp’s Bing search and maps service will be preloaded on to its China phones.

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.