Interesting that Yahoo and T-Mobile are linking up today (here’s the gist of their announcement at 3GSM):
Yahoo! has today announced a partnership with T-Mobile to offer Yahoo!’s oneSearch to the operator’s European subscribers. Today’s announcement follows on from a deal in January this year to offer the Yahoo! mobile search tool to T-Mobile’s UK/European customers. From the beginning of March, T-Mobile’s European customers will have easy and accurate access to news, financial information, weather conditions, photos, Web images, and Web and Mobile Web sites. In a second announcement, Yahoo! Revealed that its oneSearch technology now powers search services from 29 operators for more than 600m users around the world. … This agreement sets the stage for Yahoo! oneSearch to become the exclusive mobile search service for T-Mobile customers… The two companies also plan to work together to bring additional Yahoo! services including Flickr, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Weather and Yahoo! Finance to T-Mobile customers.
Of course, T-Mobile doesn’t make handsets like Apple, so my comparison in the headline is not quite correct. But what this does indicate is that T-Mobile is trying to blind-side any uppity handset makers – like Nokia or even Apple, its iPhone supplier in Germany – from generating the next wave of mobile Web services which will be the real brands we gravitate to, not mobile carriers.
Mike! Three typos in one sentence! Tsk.
“But what this does indicate is that T-Mobile is trying to blind-side any uppity handset makers – like Nokia or even Apple, its(1) iPhone supplier in Germany – from generating the next wave(2) of mobile Web services, which will be the real brands we gravitate to(3), not mobile carriers.”
And does oneSearch really not have “more than 600 users around the world.”? Shome mishtake shurely?
This’ll soften the blow to T-Mobile about being pushed out of Starbucks by AT&T then. Well, that’s all good then.