(So I started this before Microsoft’s Bid this weekend. Figured I’d finish it anyway)
Recently, Steve Jobs went to a Yahoo conference and gave a speech to Yahoo about themselves. He told them “The company with one of the largest Internet user bases can do and achieve anything…” Steve Jobs was giving Yahoo a pep-talk.
So this has made me start to wonder. Let’s take a trip on the what-if train, shall we?
What if Apple wants to buy Yahoo. Microsoft has has MSN for quite some time now. While Apple has .Mac, it pales in offerings as compared to Google or Yahoo. Yahoo has the componets already. Not to meantion, Microsoft has expressed a desire to purchase Yahoo. Apple would be wise to prevent Yahoo’s aquisition by Microsoft.
Yahoo has made great efforts in the Mobile internet offerings. Apple has the phone, Yahoo has the services, the two put together would create a great package for iPhone users.
And the thought of intergrating iPhoto and Flickr makes me giggle.
Ok, so let’s not go quite that far on the What if Train. What if Apple is looking to partner more with Yahoo? They already have Yahoo on the iPhone and integrated into the Leopard Address Book (iCal and iPhoto next?), Apple could certainly use a company like Yahoo to provide more Mac specific tools for its users.
Let us not forget Zimbra, which fits into both of these senerios. Zimbra, the opensource groupware program is one of the leading competitions for Exchange. While the Zimbra team is making efforts to increase Mac compatibility, it isn’t quite the Windows+Exchange package. Zimbra + Mac OSX Server + Pretty GUI Admin panels and you have an option for those people who don’t want Exchange. Plus, Zimbra is already compatible with the Blackberry, adding iPhone capability would turn the iPhone into a full-fledged business machine.
In the end, this is just a ‘What-if’. In the end, Apple probably has no concern either way over Yahoo!. Despite some integration features, such as Flickr – iPhoto, messeger – iChat, (probably many more) the addition of Yahoo wouldn’t be worth it to Apple. Yahoo certainly should start providing more interoperability between their services and Macintosh users (hint hint), which would pull users their way, who, let’s face it, are left out a lot of the time.
And maybe Mr. Jobs was just there to give a pep-talk.
But, what if?
