Back in Berlin a few weeks ago, Microsoft made clear their current suite of Bing apps, including Weather, News, Finance, Travel and Health + Fitness, would be adopting MSN as the brand. Microsoft has already phased out Bing from the apps in previous updates back in April. The change is seen to separate Bing search from Microsoft's news and information offerings, which evidently fit better under a retooled MSN homepage.
This morning, we are getting reports from users that the Finance app is displaying an in-app message revealing that the name Bing Finance will be no more in the "coming days". (We have been able to reproduce the message ourselves and you can see the screenshot in the lead photo) Instead, the app will be titled MSN Money, although, like the current Bing apps, the app name itself is only going to be 'Money' on the phone (Paul Thurrott reported as much a few weeks ago on WinSupersite).
When Money hits the Store, nothing else about the app is expected to change, just the name and app listing. Using Money for a moniker is certainly concise, and with Microsoft Account syncing and login support for E*Trade, Charles Schwab, TD, Sharebuilder and Fidelity, Microsoft still makes a solid financial app.
Microsoft had previously announced that the same suite of apps will be heading to iOS and Android too.
Considering the name change is impending for Money, we suppose that other Bing apps are likely to get the name change in the coming weeks as well. Earlier, we revealed the new MSN Weather app, including richer Glance screen support for Lumia devices.
Even though the user experience will be the same, what do you think of the MSN focus by Microsoft for these apps and services?
Thanks, Jorge S., and others for the tips!
