Microsoft’s $44.6 billion dollar proposed bid for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) continues to grab headlines, and more writers and analysts have pondered the implications for the mobile market. The deal wasn’t, of course, proposed solely because of the potential wireless opportunities that the two could exploit, but as Ovum analyst John Delaney wrote in a research note, mobile “could be the icing on the cake” for the two as their mobile activities complement each other and could “exert a hefty counterweight to Google’s mobile strategy”.

Delaney offers a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) compared to the combined forces of Microhoo. He notes that the mobile web will be won by the portal(s) that can offer up strong search, maps and messaging functioning, and that Microhoo could deliver this very well, given Microsoft’s efforts with its Windows Mobile operating system, and Yahoo’s concentrated efforts on the consumer applications side. Delaney notes that Microhoo is actually strongest where Google is currently weakest: in messaging. But the Ovum analyst also warns all three need to keep buttering up the operators, because without their cooperation, mobile portals aren’t going to get anywhere. As Delaney says, “Operators control data tariffing and in many markets they dominate the handset supply chain. It will be hard for any Internet portal player to achieve critical mass without favourable conditions in these two areas.”

Forbes has also looked at what the bid could mean for mobile, and comes to much of the same conclusions as Delaney: Windows Mobile OS on the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) side plus Yahoo’s consumer applications could threaten Google’s mobile web aspirations.  Yankee Group senior analyst Jill Adloft makes an interesting point—consumers are going to want “an entryway into the internet from their mobile phone.” Adloft said, “They want a homepage like they have on their desktop or laptop computer, and I think Yahoo! Go is a good first step toward providing [it].” Meanwhile, though Google has made many of their applications mobile, they aren’t as yet tied into a neat package for consumers, and are instead, adrift in “independent silos.” “Google has a chat application, Web-based search, and there is no one cohesive Google mobile application, which is important to have in a mobile environment where you want to be able to switch between applications,” Adloft said.

Combining the two also sends a message to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) (NSDQ: AAPL). Forbes quotes Current Analysis research director of mobile devices Avi Greengart, who calls Apple a challenger more in “mindshare than marketshare” because of the innovations in usability it has forced other players to deal with. While Windows Mobile looks like Windows XP pasted on to mobile phones, Yahoo’s more “user friendly” services could change that.