Sunnyvale California — Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. on Monday forged a strategic partnership with mobile handset manufacturer Samsung to dispense more of its Internet services on Samsung mobile phones from the South Korean giant, including those running Samsung bada and Android platforms, in a fresh attempt to wrest dominance from Google.
The Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo mentioned that starting from May, millions of devices powered by Samsung’s “Bada” operating system and Google’s Android platform will feature Yahoo Services.
Announcing the partnership, the two companies said that Samsung devices will be pre-loaded with Yahoo services, including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Front Page, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Flickr, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Contacts, Yahoo Calendar and Yahoo Weather, currently planned to begin in May 2010.
“We are thrilled to deepen our relationship with Samsung and look forward to continuing to drive the global adoption of mobile Internet services,” David Ko, a Yahoo senior vice president, said in a statement.
“By offering our most popular Yahoo services available on Samsung mobile devices around the world, we are empowering consumers with personally relevant mobile internet experiences that make it easy to stay connected to what is important to them and explore the full potential of their device,” said Ko.
Kenny Lee, vice president of content planning at Samsung, stated that handsets may be released with one or more of Yahoo Services, and that users will be able to accomplish a number of tasks, ranging from diary keeping to checking the weather.
“We want to offer our customers with the best possible services formulated to enhance their mobile experience,” said Lee.
Yahoo and Samsung said they have been partners since 2007 to provide consumers with innovative Internet experiences on mobile devices. The expansion of the relationship is expected to give millions more Samsung device owners easy access to Yahoo’s services.
“Our relationship with Yahoo continues to grow and benefit our global consumer base,” said Lee.
No financial details were disclosed.