SAN FRANCISCO
Yahoo
has ramped up its move to mobile, grabbing for Android smartphone home
screens with an Aviate application tuned to where people are.
Yahoo
bought Aviate early this year in a deal reported to be valued at about
$80 million dollars. The software was subsequently honed with a test
group.
An English language version of Aviate for
handsets powered by Google-backed Android software made its global debut
on Monday, in a move to give new prominence to Yahoo on the smartphone.
"We
created Aviate to connect you with the information you need at the
moment it's useful," Aviate founder and Yahoo product manager Mark Daiss
said in a Tumblr post.
"Yahoo Aviate simplifies everything about your phone."
INTELLIGENT SCREEN
The
Aviate application available at Google Play online shop is touted as
creating an "intelligent home screen" that serves up applications or
information based on where users are and what they might be most
interested in a given moment.
"It starts with a clean, new layout and apps automatically organized for you," Daiss said.
"But it's not just about making your phone simpler — Aviate also makes your phone smarter by offering intelligent information throughout your day."
The
Aviate release comes as part of a campaign by Yahoo chief executive
Marissa Mayer to revitalize the faded Internet firm as a premier digital
content company at the heart of people's daily routines in the mobile
age.
"At the end of the day, Yahoo is trying to be a
content site again; really connect you back to the content you want to
read, watch, and enjoy," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in
Silicon Valley. "It is like next-generation TV on steroids."
FIRE SMARTPHONE
To
succeed, Yahoo needs to seize control of smartphone screens and put its
content, along with money-making advertising, at the centre of
experiences on mobile devices, according to the analyst.
Online
retail titan Amazon last week made a move in the same direction by
unveiling "Fire" smartphone infused with software tightly tied to its
online offerings.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unveiled
the device, Amazon's first smartphone of its own, which has a 4.7-inch
display, a high-definition camera and Amazon's free help service.
The
phone also ties in to Amazon's vast array of other offerings, serving
as a platform for digital content such as books, films and music and
connecting users to the firm's cloud storage.
"Amazon is doing exactly what Yahoo wants to do, but with their own devices," Enderle said.
Amazon's
tactic sidesteps potential bumps that might be put in Yahoo's path by
carriers, handset makers, and Android-backer Google when it comes to
vying for control of smartphone home screens.
BUILDING NEWS TEAM
"If
Yahoo does get a beach head, it is unlikely they can hold it; and
getting that beach head is going to be difficult to begin with," Enderle
said.
Yahoo has been shedding its online search engine
past in favour of a future as a venue for premier digital content and
services, particularly aimed at smartphones and tablet computers.
Yahoo
has also been investing in original programming. US media reported on
Monday that Yahoo has added former NBC News investigative reporter
Michael Isikoff to its line-up.
"Yahoo is trying to
build out a news program," Enderle said. "They are hand picking people
who they think can bring them an audience."
Yahoo in January enlisted news, music and television stars for the launch of online magazines focused on technology and food.
In May, the Sunnyvale, California-based firm launched an online magazine for film lovers.
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