Yahoo-Nokia Deal Made Official

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Knowledge of this deal had been leaked a few weeks ago thanks to insiders, but now it’s been officially unveiled. Yahoo and Nokia have entered into a strategic partnership that both companies hope will boost their market and mind share.

As reported, Yahoo services will now be standard on Nokia devices. Nokia’s “Ovi Mail” and “Ovi Chat” will now be called “Ovi Mail / Ovi Chat, powered by Yahoo”. Likewise, Nokia will handle Yahoo’s map services. Yahoo! Local Maps (their online mapping service) will be rebranded with “powered by Ovi”.

Both companies will work together to have their user IDs accessible across both companies’ services, so people can use their Ovi IDs to login to Yahoo services. This is a pretty nice touch.

These co-branded services will start showing up in selected Nokia devices later this year, with the full roll out showing up next year. AllThingsD, who broke the story that this partnership was coming, said that the two companies had considered a “Yahoo phone”, similar to the Google/HTC/Nexus One partnership – but this ended up falling through. Probably for the better, anyway.

The CEOs Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (Nokia)and Carol Bartz (Yahoo) showed up at a press event in New York to talk about the deal. (Afterwords, Bartz went down to TechCrunch Disrupt and starting dropping f-bombs, read more about that here). From the press release, here are their comments:

“Delivering great user experiences – both online and on your mobile – is what this alliance is all about,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia. “We’re enabling millions of Yahoo! customers in key markets including North America to discover the unique capabilities that Ovi Maps brings. Similarly, Yahoo!’s online expertise will bring exciting mail and messaging enhancements to millions of Ovi Mail customers across almost every country around the world, many of whom will have their first Internet experience on their mobile.”

“What a combination,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!. “We’re excited to expand the reach of our best-in-class Mail and Messenger services, bringing personalized experiences to more people across the mobile Web, particularly in emerging markets where we are seeding the next generation of Yahoo! users. At the same time, we believe Nokia’s strength and continued investment in maps and navigation will greatly enhance our existing products, enabling us to focus on areas that are core to our business.”

Are you excited about this partnership? It’s a much bigger deal for Nokia than it is for Yahoo. Any mobile platform has Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger apps for download – but now they’re going to come installed by default on Nokia devices.