Rumor has it that Yahoo is developing an application publishing platform to let users download personalized content on various mobile devices. But will a revamped mobile strategy be enough to keep pace with competitors?

Yahoo?s goal is to use consumers? preferences, search history, social media profile and other targeting criteria to serve the most relevant mobile content, according to a New York Times report. There will reportedly be a portal on Yahoo?s Web site, as well as applications for tablets and smartphones with a focus on Google?s Android and Apple?s iOS devices.

?Both Yahoo and AOL missed out getting in on the ground floor when Apple acquired Quattro Wireless and Google acquired AdMob,? said William Clark, Indianapolis-based research vice president in mobile and wireless at Gartner.

?Those two acquisitions have led pretty quickly into dominance in terms of mobile ad revenue, and Microsoft has been playing catch-up with Bing and Windows Phone 7,? he said. ?Apple and Google have captured a fair amount of revenue via advertising within downloadable apps, but there will be opportunities for others.

?One thing to look for: Is Yahoo limited to the mobile Web or are they looking at the whole spectrum of mobile channels? While apps are catching a lot of the glamour, there are a lot of opportunities for marketers using SMS.?

Yahoo did not respond to inquiries in time for press.

Mobile content distribution a priority
For the mobile publishing initiative, initially dubbed ?Deadeye,? Yahoo is planning to work with publishers such as Hearst to collaborate on the creation of third-party mobile applications, per the Times.

Gartner estimated that mobile advertising is growing at a rate of 90 percent per year, and the research firm is forecasting 70 to 90 percent growth rate over the next three years.

?Mobile content is growing on a very rapidly ascending curve?the question is whether or not Yahoo can get a piece of the action,? Mr. Clark said. ?What does it take for Yahoo to get into a good position here?

?One of the pain points for retailers trying to get their messaging out across all of these various platforms and handsets, the content has to be agile across the Web and rich-client native applications,? he said. ?Brands have to have both Web apps and native apps in order to be blanketing the market.

?Yahoo needs to look at all of the different ways that consumers interact with content through their phones.?

App distribution tactics
Strategy Analytics tracks the most successful, highest-grossing applications across multiple platforms. It found that Yahoo Messenger, its instant-messaging client, is the company?s most popular app.

Much like its rival AOL, which recently acquired The Huffington Post for $315 million, Yahoo is looking to ramp up its content offerings, with a particular focus on mobile, which offers the most opportunities for growth going forward.

?It seems like Yahoo has been in search of an identity in the mobile space for some time now?its mobile initiatives have achieved modest success or they haven?t really worked all that well,? said Josh Martin, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. ?Yahoo?s brand is clearly very valuable, and being able to leverage that in the mobile space makes sense.

?With Yahoo Widgets on the TV side, its new strategy seems to be focused on this whole concept of personalization, which works for some folks,? he said. ?The problem is a lot of these brands are being more reactionary than proactive?Google was surprised by Groupon and Facebook was surprised by check-in apps.

?Yahoo needs to be quicker in recognizing mobile trends, or developing their own trends, which is easier said than done,? he said.

Mr. Martin said that a few years ago Yahoo could have argued that its mobile reach is so wide that it can reach eyeballs others cannot, but it is hard to make that argument today, with Apple and Google leading the way.

?If Yahoo could present a more unified ecosystem letting brands develop on Yahoo and distribute to various platforms and connected devices, not only mobile, but also PCs and TVs, that would be a more interesting play," Mr. Martin said.

"But quite honestly it is going to be a real challenge, because it is a well-trodden path at this point, and you have to have lots of bells and whistles to make people take notice,? he said.

Yahoo serious about mobile
In addition to producing mobile content, mobile advertising remains a key element of Yahoo?s strategy.

Brands such as Toyota and Subway were able to connect football fanatics with branded content and marketing collateral via a sponsorship within Yahoo?s Fantasy Football mobile properties.

With Toyota specifically, Yahoo integrated the carmaker?s ads into the Fantasy Football application and mobile Web site.

The Toyota branding and advertising was front and center as users continually monitored their teams? progress and regularly conducted their trades (see story).

Last year, Paramount Pictures used mobile rich-media advertising as part of its multichannel campaign to promote the summer blockbuster "Shrek Forever After," which resulted in a 6.2 percent click-through rate.

The three-day Shrek Forever After campaign targeted iPhone users on the Yahoo mobile homepage and the Yahoo Movies mobile portal (see story).

Mobile advertising is a very competitive arena, and Yahoo is one of many players in the space, so it must find a way to differentiate itself.

Yahoo is aiming to become an aggregator of information and content, and mobile is an important mechanism or catalyst for providing the insight that brands and agencies seek.

?Looking at the monetization piece, do you get paid off of search or each ad placement?? Gartner?s Mr. Clark said. ?It is early, so it would be pretty presumptuous to say that a company with the resources that Yahoo has won?t be able to carve out a niche, but they are at a disadvantage in that they do not own the real estate on any devices.

?Look at its partnership with Microsoft?what incremental value-add can Yahoo offer in terms of winning the mindshare of advertisers?? he said. ?Mapping out different use cases, where can Yahoo play in that? Can they be an engine that infers from search going on, mapping, location and presence?

?Can they be a context broker, providing advertisers with end users? context?the kind of car they just got into, type of TV they bought, what handset they have and APIs integrating with Facebook?can Yahoo become a trusted party for pulling that all together across the different device ecosystems??

Final Take
Yahoo's Irv Henderson

Yahoo at CES 2011