Why Yahoo Didn't Release Mail Apps for BlackBerry, iPad, and Windows Phone 8

Yahoo's new email offering comes at a time in which email accounts have become the backbone of major computing platforms. iPhones are powered by Apple's own iCloud service with its me.com email, Android runs on Gmail accounts, while Microsoft's Windows 8 requires a Live account to operate properly. Because people are adopting smartphones in greater numbers than PCs, It's in Yahoo's interest to have its services available across devices.

"One of the first three things that first-time Internet users do on mobile Internet is to sign up for an e-mail account because it's such a big part of our daily experience. What we want to do is, as more and more people adopt smartphones, which device they come to, they have a consistent Yahoo Mail experience", said Vivek Sharma, GM Communications at Yahoo at this week's media briefing from Singapore. "If you want them to use Yahoo Mail, you have to have Yahoo Mail available. We don't know which platform you might adopt, Android iPhone or Windows 8".

As for the availability of Yahoo's Mail apps, Sherma said that the apps were made for the majority of Yahoo's audience.

"Between Android and iOS, we see anywhere between 1-2 million device activations every day. On Windows 8, the predominant adoption we see in the near future is on PC and tablets, and that is where we have focus. If Windows Phone 8 catches up to Android and iOS, we'll definitely consider".

The lack of a BlackBerry app reflects the company's attitude towards RIM's fading popularity both inside and outside of the company. With BlackBerry 10 on the horizon there doesn't seem to be a reason for the company to build a BlackBerry app for the current devices.

"We have not provided native apps for BlackBerry because we don't see that as a growth area", said Sharma. Indeed, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has said that she doesn't see BlackBerry as a smartphone. The current company policy for smartphones was implemented to reflect the devices that the majority of Yahoo's audience use and it doesn't include BlackBerry. Sharma didn't say whether Yahoo will consider developing for BlackBerry 10.

As for the iPad, if you open Yahoo Mail on iPad, you will be served the existing interface which was last updated in 2010. While it's already designed with the iPad's aesthetics in mind, it's not reflective of the current approach.

"The majority of email consumptions in terms of reading, composing, and sending, are on iPhone but at this stage we haven't planned to launch on iPad", explained Sharma.