While Google looks to dominate with its Android mobile operating system, Yahoo is taking a different approach to bolstering its presence in the mobile world. Yahoo and Nokia on Monday announced a worldwide strategic alliance for five years that includes e-mail, instant messaging, maps and navigation services.
As part of the deal, Nokia becomes the exclusive provider of Yahoo’s maps and navigation services. Nokia plans to integrate Ovi Maps across all Yahoo properties with the label “powered by Ovi.” In return, Yahoo gets exclusive rights to provide e-mail and chat services to Nokia, branded as Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat “powered by Yahoo.”
Nokia and Yahoo are also working on an ID federation between their services. This aims to make it easier for Nokia customers to use services from both companies with a single log-in and password. The fruit of the alliance will come to market in the second half of 2010, with global availability in 2011.
Yahoo Can’t Fix Nokia
As Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart sees it, the deal between Nokia and Yahoo is simply a co-branding agreement. Although Yahoo brings the potential of 600 million users to the table, Greengart isn’t too impressed with the potential for Nokia.
“This doesn’t address the structural problems Nokia has in the North American market, either with carrier acceptance of its handsets or consumer acceptance of its operating system,” Greengart said.
He added that Yahoo’s e-mail and messaging services are a clear improvement over Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat from Nokia’s perspective. But he still doesn’t see the addition of Yahoo services moving the needle much for consumers shopping for a new handset.
“When consumers go to retail stores and they look at the phones, I don’t think which brand is being used for chat and mail is going to make all that much difference,” Greengart said. “It’s…