Yahoo, Nokia link in bid to challenge Google, Apple

Beleaguered and overshadowed by powerful competitors, the internet company Yahoo and the mobile phone manufacturer Nokia are pooling their expertise in an effort to regain an edge in crucial services such as maps, chat, navigation and email.

Beleaguered and overshadowed by powerful competitors, the internet company Yahoo and the mobile phone manufacturer Nokia are pooling their expertise in an effort to regain an edge in crucial services such as maps, chat, navigation and email.

HT Image

Yahoo’s chief executive, Carol Bartz has forged a deal with Finland’s Nokia to create co-branded applications, partly aimed at the millions of new mobile users in the developing world who use their handsets as their sole way to connect to the internet.

Under the agreement, Yahoo will provide chat and email services on Nokia handsets. For combined offerings, the European phone firm’s present internet brand, Ovi, will by supplemented by the words “powered by Yahoo”.

Meanwhile, Nokia will bolster Yahoo’s online mapping and navigation services, which lag far behind Google’s global mapping.

“This is two powerful consumer brands working together to bring even better services to potentially billions of people around the world,” said Nokia’s chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, at a press conference held at the Nasdaq stockmarket in Times Square, New York.

Yahoo is the web leader in display advertising while Nokia is the world’s biggest manufacturer of mobile phones.