Nokia and Yahoo! have announced a partnership that will be “good news for operators”, according to Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.
The two companies have said that from about the second half of this year, Yahoo!’s mail and messaging platform will “power” Ovi Mail and Ovi Messenger. At the same time, Yahoo! will use Nokia maps and navigation technology across its portfolio.
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“We are two operator-friendly companies,” Kallasvuo said, adding that the deal would mean operators would have a ready for market platform to offer services upon. He also said that both companies would be able to bring large developer communities to build further products upon the joint platform.
Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO, admitted that Nokia’s maps product was better realised than Yahoo!’s, and would therefore strengthen the web player’s presence in that area.
Bartz added that said that the partnership would have good results in emerging markets, where feature phones still dominate. Nokia is also hoping to use the partnership to break further into the US market.
“We are an unusual multi-national company in that we have limited penetration in the US,” Kallasvuo said.
Nokia has built its Nokia Messaging products to date on its own development plus technology assets it acquired with the purchase of OZ Communications in 2008. Nokia messaging is offered in partnership with several operators.
Mobile Europe understands that all Nokia messaging services will now be brandded as Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!
Nokia and Yahoo! said that they plan to work on iD federation between their services, beginning by making it possible for people to use their Ovi user iDs across select Yahoo! properties to easily access the online content and services they need.