SBC To Yahoo!: Phone Home

Forbes.com writes about Yahoo leveraging its existing relationship with SBC "to put its services on a cell phone to be sold by SBC and Cingular." Many are wondering what the significance of the deal is since Yahoo went through the parent (SBC) and not the child (Cingular).

Marina Amoroso at Yankee Group said, SBC "could see this as a way to lower churn and stop the landline cannibalizatio. It isn't crazy for telcos to react defensively and get into wireless."

She opined that the Yahoo deal is a "potential competitive weapon for SBC against Sprint Nextel, a carrier with significant multimedia offerings on its phones."

Weston Henderek at Current Analysis said, "I think Yahoo! launching an MVNO is still a possibility down the road. They could be putting this first phone out there just to get their feet wet."

Avi Greengart at Current Analysis added, "They're getting in pretty deep, because they're getting involved with inventory. What if the form factor is wrong on this handset, or the price is off? I just don't know how likely it is to succeed."

What's interesting is the different approaches Yahoo and Google are taking to infiltrate the mobile market. I currently favor Google's something for (mostly) everyone approach, especially their neat little Google Local for Mobile app. I can't see why someone would want to buy a Yahoo handset unless the price and sevice was exceptional...