Yahoo and Nokia set their sights on dual dominance
YAHOO and Nokia yesterday unveiled a wide Internet services deal, including maps and e-mail service, as the two battle new rivals on the wireless market.
The role of mobile services and software has increased sharply since Apple and Google entered the industry, forcing traditional phonemakers like Samsung and Nokia to hurry to build up their offerings.
Nokia has splashed more than $10bn in just a few years to build a new business by offering Internet services ranging from music downloads to e-mail, but these have so far won few paying customers. Under the new deal Yahoo will be the exclusive provider of Nokia’s e-mail service, while Nokia will be exclusive provider of maps and navigation for Yahoo.
The two companies said they would also start to co-operate on access to services, beginning by making it easy for people to use their Ovi user credentials across select Yahoo services.
“It’s a deeper collaboration than many expected. It could really help broaden the reach of Nokia’s email and messaging services in emerging marketsm” said MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen.
Last month, Yahoo also struck a deal with Samsung to put its services and software on its phones.