Yahoo and Alcatel jointly unveil phone and app bundle

You’ve heard of the iPhone, but have you heard of the Y-Phone? Internet portal Yahoo announced at CommunicAsia today that it had teamed up with Alcatel to release a phone dubbed the Alcatel One Touch, with bundled Yahoo content and software the firm hopes will attract mobile internet adopters in Indonesia and other emerging markets throughout Asia.

The One Touch – so called because with ‘one touch’ one can supposedly access Yahoo content – also includes a new Yahoo app bundle with  mobile registration, a unified inbox covering email, IM and SMS, and a searchable archive, as well as a bunch of APIs.
The phone itself was developed by TCT Mobile, a unit of listed Chinese handset firm TCL Communications.
Yahoo is calling its little bundle of app joy “Messenger One” and believes operators will be able to charge punters a “small premium” [small fortune?] for it, although Yahoo itself says it has no plans to monetize it just yet. The firm is simply offering the bundle out of the goodness of its mobile heart.
Actually, Yahoo’s motive is to increase its mobile user base in order to get users hooked on Yahoo services, which should eventually bring in ad revenue for the company.
Currently, most of Yahoo’s ad revenue comes from the PC space, but the firm believes it’s about time it got itself a piece of the mobile action.
To this end, Yahoo has been making a whole host of strategic partnerships with giants in the mobile space. Just last month, Yahoo teamed up with Finnish phone maker Nokia to focus on emerging markets, and the firm also snapped up Indonesian location-based social networking outfit Koprol.
But while there is no doubt Yahoo is trying to win over developers and get in on the app game, the company insists it is not getting into the business of handset making, nor is it trying to directly take on Apple or Google.
“It’s not a ‘Y-Phone’, because Yahoo doesn’t make phones, unlike our formidable competitor Google,” said Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, business development manager for Yahoo mobile Asia. Instead, according to Ocampo, Yahoo makes partnerships with other firms who have the device know-how.
The phone, which should retail for around $100 or less, can get push-email from Yahoo servers as well as sync contact and calendar information. It also has all the typical social networking capabilities one would expect from a feature phone including Facebook and Flickr.
Other features include a 2.4 inch display, QWERTY keyboard with optical trackpad, EDGE mobile Internet connectivity, Bluetooth stereo, 2-megapixel camera, 80MB storage and FM radio.
Yahoo says the phone will go on sale in India from July, with plans to enter Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam in the following months.
For those without the new Yahoo/Alcatel device, some can still try out the Yahoo Messenger One beta, which is currently available for Blackberry 9000, Blackberry 9700, Blackberry 8900, and Blackberry 9630 devices.