In a notable alliance announced on Monday, Yahoo and Nokia – two bigwigs endeavoring to keep afloat in the highly-competitive US mobile market arena – have teamed up for leveraging their respective strengths; thereby recompensing for the limitations of each.

Specifically speaking, the Finland-based phone giant Nokia will provide map services to the customers – on both PCs and mobile devices - of the Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo; in lieu of which Yahoo will run its Mail and Chat services for the Nokia smartphone users around the world.

The deal, announced by Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in New York, will help boost Nokia’s presence in the US - a market where the company has been virtually struggling against competition from the Apple iPhone and the Google Android -; and give Yahoo the opportunity to benefit from Nokia’s NAVTEQ map services.

Talking about the importance of the alliance with Yahoo, Kallasvuo told reporters in New York: “We are clearly the leader in our industry, yet we do not lead in the biggest market in the world — the US. This is one step we are taking to change that.”

Meanwhile, acknowledging that using Nokia’s map and NAVTEQ services will be “a much richer experience” for the Yahoo users, Bartz said that the alliance will enable Yahoo buildup its user base in developing countries like Indonesia, India and Thailand.