New Yahoo!
Early reports said the new phones would be Apple
But today, the plot thickens. Business Insider just got its hands on an internal Yahoo! memo that describes the new smartphone policy in greater detail, and the final list of approved phones speaks volumes.
"Ideally, we'd like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do," Mayer's memo says. So the company will buy and then pay the monthly bills for one of the following five models: the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, HTC Evo 4G LTE, or Nokia
These are flagship handsets from every smartphone brand under the sun, including three Androids and a Windows-based Nokia phone. Missing from the list? Research In Motion
Ouch. Mayer is saying that she did her research to identify the phones people actually use, and BlackBerry just ain't it anymore.
That attitude might change when RIM introduces its BlackBerry 10 platform in 2013, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. The BlackBerry had its moment in the sun, but it looks more and more irrelevant with every passing day. Yahoo!'s smartphone policy only underscores that trend.
RIM is quickly becoming the next Palm, and that's not a compliment. Apple, on the other hand, just introduced the iPhone 5 to record-breaking pre-orders, and Cupertino sits at the core of today's mobile market. To help investors understand the opportunities and challenges ahead of Apple, we've created a brand-new report on that august stock. It not only details reasons to buy and sell the company, but it also comes with continuing guidance and updates in the crucial holiday-season months ahead. Not only that, but you also get plenty of extras, like our newest report on which iPhone suppliers are set to gain the most from the iPhone 5 launch. Get the jump on uninformed investors right now.