While the apps are polished, there is room for improvement. For example, it would also be better if the apps recognised the chosen theme colour selected by the users, especially for their Live Tiles, and I think lockscreen integration would be a sensible addition. Microsoft will no doubt be listening for feedback, and I hope they take it on board, when updating the apps in the future.
The four apps are very much "core" apps in the sense that they are gathering and curating content that users will look for every day. It easy to see any of these apps being used multiple times a day by some users.
On the surface giving developers more competition in these "core" areas would seem to be the last thing you want to do when you're trying to build a healthy app economy around your platform. Bing Weather is, perhaps, the best example of this, but it is worth noting that the weather app genre is particular diverse, so it feel like there's still plenty of room for third party apps.
It's also true to say that some apps are so important that you don't want to reply on third party developers. It's not much about whether they are available, but about whether they provide a consistent experience. It's no accident that apps in these categories are very often preloaded on competing platforms.
Furthermore, I suspect the release of the Bing apps will have an indirect effect on the quality of other apps. If you're building a news, weather, sports, or finance app there's now an obvious baseline of quality on show that any new app will need to equal or exceed, if it is to be considered competitive.
What may change things a little is if either Microsoft, or one of its manufacturer partners, decide to bundle one or more of the apps out of the box. Microsoft is preloading the Window 8 versions of the apps on new PCs, so an extension of this policy to Windows Phone is at least a possibility in the longer term, though it is less straight forward than in the PC world, because more stakeholders are involved.
In the shorter term it is hard to see Nokia, HTC, or Samsung putting these apps on their devices, unless they are obliged to do so. That's because they already have app strategies of their own, which, in some cases, already provide apps in these areas (e.g. The Weather Channel app in Nokia Collection, HTC app in HTC Apps).
However, it may be a different proposition for the second and third tier manufacturers, especially those looking to create budget handsets. Offerings from the likes of Alcatel and new Windows Phone hardware partners could benefit from bundling the Bing apps suite out of the box as a way of standing out from the crowd... and I'm sure Microsoft will be happy if they make that positive choice.
The four new Bing Apps are rolling out in to the Windows Phone store just now, and they've arrived on our handsets here in the AAWP offices. Have you had a chance to look over the apps? If so, what do you think?