Earlier this month, we spotted Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at a dinner party with Apple's designer/living-god Jonny Ive.
Next, Mayer needs to meet with the big boss at Apple, Tim Cook.
They need to talk about a deep, expansive partnership between their two companies.
At least, that's the theory from John Gruber, who is one of the best-sourced Apple bloggers on the planet.
(When Apple comes out with new products, executives make one-on-one appointments with him to show them off.)
Anywho, Gruber casually tossed this theory out on his blog the other day, without much explanation.
We emailed him for more, and he generously obliged.
Here is what he said:
I don't have a complex argument to make. To me it's all on the surface:
Apple has a thriving mobile platform, but very little online data of its own.
Yahoo has a ton of online data -- news, weather, stocks, sports -- but doesn't own its own mobile platform, and, as mobile evolves, the web is not enough. You need integration with native apps.
Apple has been using Yahoo as the backend for iOS Weather and Stocks from the get-go. And Siri's sports data comes from Yahoo. I think this could be pushed further, to the mutual benefit of both companies.
