Robert Scoble writes that Microsoft and Yahoo’s attempt to merge is good for Google’s mobile ambitions. I have stripped down his very long post to the bare essence:

Google stands to gain HUGE by slowing down this deal. …the real race today [is]…for ownership of your mobile phone. …every month that Microsoft and Yahoo will be stuck in some courtroom arguing out why this is a good deal means money in the bank for Google as they close mobile phone deal after mobile phone deal. … IM is harder to monetize than email is. Do we really think Google is concerned about either email or IM? [No.] Why not? Because they aren’t taking their eye off the mobile ball.

There’s lots of redundancy between Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s global efforts, but it’s not a perfect overlap. For example, I use both Yahoo Go and Live Search Mobile on my Windows Mobile-based Blackjack. The map and business listings and the new voice-recognition “speak” feature are better on Live, but reading the news, weather, and using Flickr is better on Yahoo’s Go. A single combined app with the best of both would be incredible, but I expect that culture clash will keep the Live and Go teams at odds for some time, until the stronger team devours the weaker. Ah, capitalism.

In the meantime, Google will forge ahead with Android (even a delayed Android) and let MSFT+YHOO cannibalize itself and give up the rapidly growing mobile market. It’s feasible but not guaranteed. After all, it’s easy to claim that unreleased software will someday crush other software.

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