14 DAY TRIAL // The Sunnyvale company Yahoo partnered with Idea Cellular, one of the largest Indian mobile firms that will be able to distribute the giant portal's mobile solution oneSearch. The two companies are planning to allow the country's residents to access most of the mobile solutions provided by Yahoo including the search engine, Flickr, news and financial information. Yahoo sustains this is a strategic move because the local company will help the Sunnyvale giant improve its presence into the market and expand its mobile offering.
"Yahoo! oneSearch provides Idea with a competitive advantage by offering a reliable and easy-to-use mobile search offer to consumers in India," said Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular Ltd. "Our subscribers are increasingly looking for the quickest way to access services on the open internet and the mobile device has now become a tool to get instant answers," added Mr Shrivastava.
As you might know, Yahoo oneSearch is a mobile technology powered by the giant portal and which was first released in January 2007 and offers instant access to the Yahoo mobile services. At this time, oneSearch is available in 14 countries including the newly announced India.
"Our partnership with Idea Cellular is helping to extend Yahoo!'s clear leadership in search for mobile users in India," said David Ko, vice president and general manager, Connected Life Asia, Yahoo!. "Yahoo! is committed to innovation that provides value to operators and consumers and our mobile partnership strategy will continue to evolve and add value to our respective customers," Ko added.
Although Yahoo might look like the only competitor for the mobile market, it actually isn't, because the Mountain View rival Google is also struggling to improve the mobile solutions. Google is owning numerous mobile products but, every once in a while, it develops a new flavor of the existing services, making them available from any handheld device.