After their recent link-up with Apple, Motorola have announced another big-name partnership, this time with search engine giant Yahoo!.

The move will mean a whole host of Yahoo! optimised products on Motorola handsets, from 2006 on Linux-based handsets.

With popular and establised products such as the Yahoo! Search, Messenger, News and Games, Motorola will be able to harness a wide range of content as well as an huge existing user base.

However, it remains to be seen how the exclusivity of the agreement is to be proven - it's likely that by 2006, Yahoo! will be accessible by most mobile phones.

Will more handsets be sold as a result? Keep watching to find out!

Here's the full press release:

 Companies to Align on Linux and Java Platform for Optimized and Seamless Mobile Consumer Experience

Libertyville, IL and Sunnyvale, CA – 26 July 2005 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a global leader in wireless and broadband communications, and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced they intend to collaborate to provide consumers with easy access to Yahoo!’s core products and services on millions of Motorola Linux-based mobile devices, broadband-enabled products for the connected home, and through Motorola’s forthcoming iRadio solution, starting in 2006. Motorola and Yahoo! plan to make these services available to key operators worldwide to increase consumer adoption of mobile data services.

“Many of our operator customers have asked us for easier access to the types of Yahoo! services consumers know and love. By aligning with Yahoo! we’re able to expand our offerings to customers, while providing a great Seamless Mobility experience for consumers around the globe,” said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola’s Mobile Device business. “And, by optimizing these products for our leading Linux and Java software platform, we’re making it just that much easier for operators to maximize revenue while delivering the most innovative consumer experiences.”

“Yahoo! is focused on providing our millions of users with the opportunity to connect to their Yahoo! services on the devices they use. Our plans with Motorola are an important step toward making this vision a reality,” said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of the Connected Life business unit, Yahoo!. “By working with Motorola and leading carrier partners on a global basis, we will be able to further extend Yahoo!’s presence beyond the desktop and onto millions more mobile devices, into the home and even into the automobile.”

The companies intend to offer both operators and consumers Motorola devices optimized for direct access to the full suite of Yahoo!’s leading products and services.

Motorola’s Yahoo! optimized products are expected to be available to consumers in major markets starting in 2006.