After wisely letting the air clear following the big Apple TV announcement (and all the comparisons to Google TV), Yahoo’s stepped forward to remind everyone that it also intends to compete in the connected TV space.  Yahoo announced a partnership with a major TV manufacturer this morning.

Vestel, the TV manufacturer in question, is Europe’s largest.  It claims to produce 16 percent of LCD TVs made on the continent, and 25 percent of digital set-top boxes, too.

That gives the organization quite a reach, and Yahoo will benefit from it in an obvious way: Vestel plans to ship Yahoo Connected TV to consumers in over 40 countries.

Rich Riley, the senior vice president and managing director of Yahoo EMEA, stated as a result, "Yahoo! is transforming the television experience for millions of consumers around the world.  Vestel’s innovative consumer electronics products combined with Yahoo!’s industry-leading Connected TV platform allow consumers to experience the Internet and television together in ways they never have before.  This is the future of television."

Turan Erdogan, a board member and the president of sales, marketing, and R&D at the Vestel Group, also said, "Through this partnership, we provide customers with a high-quality, easy to use, well-known platform for delivering Internet apps directly to our connected products."

Shipments of the joint Yahoo/Vestel products are scheduled to begin early next year.