Softbank, Yahoo Team Up in Web Pact

Softbank Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son said at a shareholders meeting in Tokyo that his company’s mobile division will soon offer new cell phones that can connect directly to the Web through a Yahoo Internet portal, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Son suggested that mobile phone users aren’t currently satisfied with the cell phone-based Web services offered by rival companies like NTT DoCoMo, and that he wants “to bring the broad world of the Internet, with Yahoo as its center, to the mobile world,” according to the Journal.

Tokyo-based Softbank’s chief executive also said the new mobile phones will feature full browsers that are capable of viewing websites just as a user would on a PC, the Journal reports.

Softbank is attempting to achieve group sales of $21.5 billion this fiscal year, which closes in March, as well as increase its subscriber base to roughly 26 million, according to the Journal, and the new Yahoo-enabled cell phones would likely give the company a push in the right direction. In the last fiscal year, Softbank posted group sales of approximately $8.6 billion, the Journal reports.

Related Links:

• Vodafone, Softbank Team Up for Mobile Phones, Services in Japan

• Reports: Apple, Softbank Plan iPod Cell Phone

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.