Yahoo Set to Appear on LG Cell Phone Screens

Yahoo has reached a deal with LG Electronics that should see its “Go” mobile platform on the screens of tens of millions of LG cell phone handsets shipped later this year, the two companies said Monday.

Under the deal, LG will preload Yahoo services, including Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger, on phones sold worldwide, they said in the announcement that was timed to coincide with the start of the 3GSM exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. Precise details of the alliance, including which services would appear on what models and in which markets, were not disclosed. Financial terms also were not announced.

LG was the fifth-largest manufacturer of cell phones in 2006, according to figures from market research company IDC. It shipped 64.4 million phones during the year, which is 17.3 percent higher than the previous year and amounted to a 6.6 percent market share.

Yahoo has already tied up with market leader Nokia and number two Motorola in similar deals to get its search box on the cellular equivalent of the PC desktop. However, those deals haven’t assured Yahoo a place on all screens. Motorola and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications also have a deal with Google, and local carriers have struck their own partnerships that sometimes result in the two search engines being switched or displaced.

The two companies said they will also explore putting Yahoo services on LG consumer electronics products. LG is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of digital consumer electronics, including flat-panel televisions and video recorders.

-Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)

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