AT&T’s first Android device is coming down the pipeline next week, the Motorola Backflip, for $99 on a 2-year contract on March 7. Other than being disappointed with the industrial design of this device there might be something else to complain about. A recent hands-on by Engadget’s Chris Zeigler found that all of the default Google search was taken out of the device and replaced with Yahoo search (which will use Bing soon enough). Let me repeat that; all Google search is taken out of AT&T’s Android device in favor of Yahoo search.

Is anyone else shocked by this? It seems that there are some type of deals going on behind the scenes between AT&T and Yahoo (possibly Microsoft). This wouldn’t surprise me as much if this were on any other device than an Android, but having Google search as the standard search is one of the ways that Google can monetize their free mobile OS. The more Android devices, the more Google searches, the more ad revenue.

Also some of the default Android applications are going to be stripped from the OS in favor of AT&T services / applications. If this is what a non-Google Experience device looks like on AT&T, an abomination of carrier/business partner/device manufacturer packaged into a heaping pile of of bad device design I am sure that I don’t want any part of it. Hopefully, the Moto Backflip will be easily “root-able” so users can restore it to it’s Android goodness.

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