Samsung to add Yahoo platforms to smartphones

Yahoo reached an agreement with Samsung on April 26 to have its e-mail, messenger, search and other tools pre-installed on Samsung phones that use the Android and Bada mobile operating systems.

The two companies have worked together since 2007. However, this partnership will give millions more Samsung smartphone owners easier access to Yahoo properties. It will also extend the advertising reach of the Yahoo network.

“The main benefit to marketers is that we will continue to grow our traffic position,” said David Katz, VP of mobile for Yahoo North America. “We already get 40 million unique users in the US per month, according to ComScore. We see this new partnership as having tremendous reach for new audiences.”

The partnership will also provide marketers a more engaged audience, he added.

“Smartphone users tend to be early adopters with high incomes, which is attractive to marketers,” said Katz. “Smartphone users also tend to use the Internet more and the more eyeballs we can attract and the deeper the level of engagement, the better we can help monetize that content.”

The first Samsung phones with pre-installed Yahoo applications, including e-mail, messenger, search, news and Flickr, will be available next month.

A Samsung representative could not be immediately reached for comment.