While most of the world has been speculating about Google launching some kind of mobile phone or application it seems that Yahoo has been quietly working on a device of its own.

A document leaked late last week provides an insight into the forthcoming Yahoo Phone, codenamed the yPhone. Apparently the yPhone will be designed around a central portal service allowing users to surf the web from a desktop page styled much like the online Yahoo homepage. Users will make calls and send messages by clicking on links from the Yahoo homepage and the whole experience of the phone will be similar to the current Yahoo online pages.

Yahoo hasn’t ignored the demand for multimedia features and has included an application to play music and videos. Thanks to HSDPA Yahoo are offering free streaming of a variety of content from a special, mobile only, service called yTunes. Users can download a selection of free tracks and pay a small fee for premium songs.

The document leaked shows some screenshots of the yPhone with details of how the interface will work. Much of the technology employed is an ugraded version of the Yahoo Mobile applications which have been improved by Yahoo in recent weeks. The big difference is that the yPhone doesn’t use a browser - all the applications are desktop applications which run much faster.

The launch date for the yPhone isn’t listed but insiders believe it will be sometime during 2007. Yahoo are in discussions with a number of US distributors but it is likely that Sprint will be favourites to distribute the yPhone given that Cingular already has rights to the iPhone from Apple.

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