 Yahoo Finance for the iPhone Source: Yahoo Click to enlarge. |
Yahoo is keeping its foot on the pedal, bringing more of its portfolio of Web-based apps to mobile platforms. Today Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) added Yahoo Finance and its Fantasy Football apps to both the iPhone and the BlackBerry Bold, Tour and 8900 series.
The company also unwrapped Flickr for the iPhone, an app already available on the Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry.
The news come as part of Yahoo’s ongoing push into mobile where it has broad distribution and advertising deals. According to recent comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) data, Yahoo reaches almost one out of every two mobile Internet users in the U.S. and has about 34 million unique users per month.
“Anytime we can get software on the device itself versus the browser, we can do more robust things,” a Yahoo spokesperson told InternetNews.com.
For example, the Finance app on the iPhone takes advantage of the device’s accelerometer, so charts and graphs can be viewed in the phone’s wider landscape mode when users rotate their iPhone.
The Flickr for Mobile app is designed to let iPhone users easily upload, share and tag photos and videos. It’s available for free through the iTunes App Store. There is also a Flickr mobile site.
iPhone Flickr users can also now view their friends photos, comment on them or mark them as favorites. A video feature lets you take, upload and play back posted videos.
“Flickr lends itself to mobile smartphone technology and everyone’s looking to get on the iPhone, so this is a good move by Yahoo,” Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin told InternetNews.com.
“Yahoo’s been on the iPhone since day one and they’re always looking to leverage their Web technology,” he said. “Having Finance, Flicker and Fantasy Sports as mobile apps makes them more accessible so mobile users don’t have to hunt around on the Web looking for them. It’s a lot easier to do that on the desktop — mobile users don’t have time.”
Finance and fantasy
In addition to access to financial news and stock market updates from Yahoo Finance, users can follow a personalized portfolio and drill down on specific companies financial info. Streaming video from Yahoo’s “Tech Ticker” is also available.
Capitalizing on Yahoo Sports’ status as one of the leading providers of fantasy football applications, its new mobile version lets users manage their team directly from the device. Users can add and drop players, view matchups, standings and player stats and access live scoring.
