mocoNews - Yahoo's New CEO Carol Bartz To Keep A Closer Watch On Mobile

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Tricia Duryee

mocoNews.net
Thursday, March 26, 2009; 3:59 PM

Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz is making sure the mobile unit works more closely with other business units and is making mobile a bigger priority than it was under Jerry Yang, reports Silicon Alley Insider. Dan Frommer said he's been hearing that under Yang and former mobile boss Marco Boerries, the mobile group was like a "isolated startup." But now under Bartz's control, and with David Ko heading the division, the group will be required to work more closely with product teams.

I think Frommer has this partially correct. It's not that mobile will be a bigger focus?arguably, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) already had a significant mobile operation. What this likely means, however, is that the rest of the company will have to embrace mobile. For example, let's look at what's happened over the past year or so. Yahoo's mobile group has secured a ton of partnerships with wireless carriers, and has developed a number of standalone mobile products, like oneSearch, oneConnect and onePlace. Meanwhile, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) took a completely different approach. It spent the past year or more taking its already popular online brands, like Google Maps and Mail, to mobile. It also built an operating system that integrated its branded products. Meanwhile, Yahoo's mobile endeavors leveraged little of its brand or userbase online. From this perspective, Google looks like it has taken the lead.

But Yahoo should also not be ruled out. While Google is trying to gain adoption of its products by developing an operating system, Yahoo already has a very large distribution network that spans dozens of carriers and OEMs around the world. It also has started to change the way it approaches mobile products. At Mobile World Congress in February, Yahoo launched Yahoo Mobile, which streamlines and replaces Yahoo Go. The product, which will include an iPhone application, will include features from OneSearch, OneConnect, OnePlace and products, like Yahoo Maps.

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