BBC Sport launches new iPhone app with Android version to follow
BBC Sport has launched a free to download app for iPhone users, with an Android version to be released in the coming weeks.
The app is a hybrid application blending HTML5-based web content with native iOS features.
Content includes news articles; live text commentaries and football scores; live streams of BBC radio stations 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra; social and personalisation features. Live video streams will be added later in 2013.
BBC Sport's head of interactive Ben Gallop commented on the app: "The app is a major step forward in our development and one that recognises the importance of mobile, right now and in the future,"
"A third of traffic to the site already comes from mobile - a proportion that rises to more than 40 per cent at the weekend when live sport is going on. It won't be long until most of our audience is accessing our content through handheld devices."
Executive product manager Lucie Mclean also explained why the app has launched on Android later than on iPhone: "The Android version still needs some more development work and testing to ensure it works on the wide range of Android devices available and will be live in the next few weeks."
At the moment, the BBC Sport app won't be available on other mobile platforms including Windows Phone and BlackBerry, with Mclean citing comScore figures indicating that iOS and Android account for 75% of the UK smartphone market.
She continued: "We haven't ruled out developing the app for other platforms but building apps is expensive and as a publicly-funded organisation we have to prioritise the areas where we can reach the most users at the lowest costs."