WEB PORTAL Yahoo has teamed up with mobile phone
vendor Nokia to synchronise each others' services.
The deal will see Nokia and its mapping subsidiary, Navteq, become
the sole supplier of data to Yahoo for its mapping applications. In
return, Yahoo will become the sole provider of Ovi Mail and Chat. To
round things off both firms will work towards something called an "ID
federation" presumably trying to capture the success of Microsoft's
Passport authentication system.
Both firms are calling this a strategic alliance, but in truth it
smacks of desperation from two firms who have been trying to live off
their reputations forged in the 90s.
Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo seemed to think a partnership with
Yahoo was the big ticket to US market penetration, admitting that Nokia
wasn't "leading in the biggest market". Kallasvuo claimed that the
partnership os crucial to growing its Ovi services in the North America
region.
Reciprocating the love, Chief Yahoo Carol Bartz exclaimed "What a
combination!" adding that it was in her firm's DNA to partner with
others in order to add to its strengths. Focusing on Nokia's market
share in developing countries, Bartz claimed that many users will have
their first experience of the Internet on a mobile device, and
presumably she wants that to be supported by adverts served up by Yahoo.
With Yahoo in bed with Microsoft and Nokia pushing its Linux based
Meego operating system, it'll be interesting to see if any partnership
via Yahoo will occur between the two firms. It's unlikely that Nokia
will load the impending disaster that will be Windows Phone 7 onto any
of its handsets, especially as it has so much invested in Symbian and
Meego.
One can't help but think that Nokia has got more out of this deal
than Yahoo. Not only is the firm flogging its map data to Yahoo but it
has managed to get the increasingly irrelevant search engine to help run
mail services, something it wasn't making money from.
The truth is both firms are desperately trying to cling onto
relevance in their respective markets. Yahoo's decline has been well
documented and Nokia must realise that its inability to grasp the
touchscreen smartphone market has turned it into an unfashionable
handset manufacturer, the image it fostered to great success in the
1990s. In recent months this has materialised with analysts reporting
falling market share for the firm.
With the partnership, both firms will be hoping to rope in punters
who haven't had a chance to experience alternatives.