Technology

Why the New Yahoo Mail Matters

In her first big product overhaul, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has announced a redesign of Yahoo Mail — and it focuses a lot on the mobile experience, as promised.

By Rebecca Greenfield
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

In her first big product overhaul, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has announced a redesign of Yahoo Mail — and it focuses a lot on the mobile experience, as promised. Before today, Yahoo just had an Android app for its 15-year-old email service; now it's revamped that and added versions for iOS and Windows 8. The look and concept aren't anything mind-blowing — check out the photos below — as Yahoo Mail still looks a lot like standard mail apps for Apple and Microsoft's mobile products. But Yahoo mail users didn't even have the option of using a Yahoo-made app until now. So as far as the company's mobile presence goes (something Mayer keeps saying she wants to work on), even the most standard of apps will help.

The company has a surprisingly big mobile presence, with 68 million users, according to the latest comScore numbers, putting it just behind Facebook and Google as the most-visited site via phones and tablets. But, most of that comes from the weather app that comes built in to the iPhone and uses Yahoo data. Otherwise, as this Goldman Sachs chart via Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson shows, users don't spend much time using the company's mobile products. Email is a logical place to start. In the last few years Yahoo has fallen from its number-one spot in the email realm, with Gmail and Hotmail adding more users. As 50 percent of cell phone owners use their phones to check email, according to recent Pew numbers, adding a phone app makes Yahoo a little more attractive. For example, iPhone owners with Yahoo Mail accounts — an overlap we're not too sure exists — have the option check that using a Yahoo-made app, instead of Apple's native one, or another third-party mail client. The same goes for Windows users.

In addition to merely existing, the new designs look cleaner and more modern, with fewer crazy ads in user faces, as you can see below.

Windows 8 (via Gizmodo):

The iPhone app, also via Gizmodo:

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.