Nokia and Yahoo -- two market leaders struggling to keep up in the U.S. mobile market -- joined forces Monday, announcing that Nokia would use its purchase of mapping giant NAVTEQ to power Yahoo's map and navigation services globally, while Yahoo gets the right to run Mail and Chat for Nokia's smartphones.
Unlike its competitors, Google and Microsoft, Yahoo no longer powers its own search and has no mobile-phone operating system. Yahoo remains the top webmail service in the U.S., however, and continues to create innovation in search experiences. Yahoo's media properties for Sports and Finance also remain leaders on the net and are used as the defaults in Apple's iPhone system.
The Finland-based phonemaker Nokia retains its global lead as the top mobile-device maker, including smartphone and the more familiar feature phones.
But Nokia's smartphones have never resonated with U.S. customers, and that's a bad sign for the company, because these days the leading phones almost always debut in the United States. And when it comes to smartphone innovation, the tech press is focused on the competition between Google's Android OS and Apple's iPhone.
Both companies are too big to ignore, but sadly, even with the partnership, it seems like both are still falling behind. If its any consolation, at least they will have company.
