Japan's third-biggest mobile operator, SoftBank has announced the Yahoo! Phone, which will be powerd by Android. This move sounds strange considering Google is Yahoo's biggest rival. This development is all the more confounding because the latter has a close relationship with Google's nemesis, Microsoft. Let's not forget the fact that Bing also powers Yahoo's search engine.The device will feature a 4" LCD screen, 8 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, and microSD card slot. The Yahoo! Phone will run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), and will feature a built-in digital TV tuner. Yeah, that'll be a TV phone. Well, if these Japs can fit a Sumo in Honda car, a TV in a mobile is no sweat either.
The phone is manufactured by Sharp, which is then rebadged as a Yahoo! Phone. To justify its name, the device will ship with a bunch of country specific Yahoo! Mobile apps. The smartphone is expected to be available by the end of next month.