Samsung and Yahoo! “announced a strategic global partnership” today, that comes down to this: future Samsung devices, including those running Bada and Android, will come preloaded with Yahoo! services. Now I know what you’re thinking, why? Who the hell still uses Yahoo!? In Asia, a lot of folks. In fact, it’s the number one instant messaging provider over there. Along with Yahoo! Messenger, look forward to finding Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Contacts and Calendar, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Weather on your next Samsung device.
What about Android? Devices like the Galaxy S look absolutely mouth watering, will those ship with Yahoo! services prebundled, while Google services are removed? I can’t really answer that. How will Google feel about all of this? They can’t really do much, except fly to South Korea and say “whatever Yahoo! is paying you, we’ll double it!” And that’s just something they may want to do since Samsung is growing really fast.
“By making our most popular Yahoo! services available on Samsung mobile devices around the world, we’re providing consumers with personally relevant mobile Internet experiences that make it easy for them to stay connected to what’s important to them and explore the full potential of their device,” said David Ko, senior vice president, Audience, Mobile and Local for Yahoo!. “We’re thrilled to deepen our relationship with Samsung and look forward to continuing to drive the global adoption of mobile Internet services.”
“We want to provide our customers with the best possible services designed to enhance their mobile experience,” said Kenny Lee, vice president of content planning at Samsung. “Our relationship with Yahoo! continues to grow and benefit our global consumer base, who wants access popular Yahoo! services from their Samsung phone.”
Samsung and Yahoo! have been working together since 2007, so this is nothing new, but it’s still kind of scary to imagine what a device running Google’s Android operating system will look like with all those Yahoo! icons in the application menu.
[Via: Market Watch]
[Photo via: Business Wire]