Yahoo planning to launch a mobile phone too

Expect the yPhone next year

4 September 2007 15:33 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

gPhone? Old hat. Okay, so it hasn't actually launched yet, but it's old news, things move fast in the tech world and it's now all about the Yahoo phone.

Really. It seems that Yahoo have set up a massive research and development centre in California with 120 employees - a large proportion of which are ex-Motorola employees.

Yahoo claim these employees are working on "targeting" which is plausible as mobile phone advertising is one of the biggest cash cows yet to be milked.

What gives this rumour more juice is news from TechCruch who say they've been chatting with an HTC executive and report:

"Yahoo is on a parallel track as Google, and has actually been working on custom phones for longer than Google. We may be seeing a Yahoo phone next year, too."

Yahoo have recently expanded their mobile-phone friendly offerings with improved browser Go! and just maybe, see a Yahoo phone hitting the market before the gPhone as a way to finally get one up on the all-conquering Google.