Creamer Media launches iPhone app

In the first 24 hours of the application being available in the iTunes Store, Creamer Media reports 173 downloads. The leading country was the US with 62 downloads, following by Canada with 151 downloads, Japan with 12 downloads, Australia with 12 downloads and France with 11 downloads. So far, on the first day, three downloads were undertaken on the South African iTunes Store.

Upon investigation, Bizcommunity.com has learnt of the Fring iPhone app available locally (although unconfirmed yet if developed locally), the Ushahidi smart phone app, and that Zoopy is waiting for approval from Apple for the launch of its app.

“The way media is moving is represented in this device, people are accessing media in new integrated ways and we took the decision to be the first in South Africa to develop an application for the iPhone,” says CEO Kenneth Creamer.

“The iPhone is a truly remarkable device and when it finally arrived in South Africa, we wanted to be in a position to offer our readership the option of accessing the website from their phones, from any location and at any time of the day or night.”

Three products in one

Incorporating 3G wireless technology, the iPhone 3G combines three products in one, that of the mobile phone, a widescreen iPod and an Internet device with rich HTML email and full web browsing. The device was launched in 21 countries in July 2008, with one million phones sold within three days of its launch. Vodafone announced in May this year that it had reached agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe, including South Africa, although the device was only launched locally by Vodacom at the end of September.

A team of local developers at Generator Consulting took up the challenge of designing an iPhone compatible format of the Mining Weekly website, which was then approved by Apple and added to the thousands of applications available for download via the online applications store.

As publisher of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, as well as the online versions of both publications, Creamer Media decided that its strategy of taking its brand global would be best served via the Mining Weekly iPhone application.

“Leverage off international popularity”

“It is our intention to leverage off the international popularity of the iPhone to build our brand abroad and become the leading source of global mining news and information. We believe it is the first mining news service accessible on any phone, anywhere,” explains Creamer.

The application will run off the same content management system as the original website, and thus offer the same real time daily news flow. In addition, the same search functionality will be available, as well as real time regional news updates for Africa, North America, South America, Australasia, Asia and Europe.

The app store may be accessed from the user's iTunes application. Further information may be obtained from www.apple.com/iphone.

Update 13.56pm: It has been confirmed that the Fring app is not locally developed.