BBC launches apps for Nokia phones

Among apps for 11 language services of BBC World Service include the BBC Hindi application.

BBC World Service has announced the availability of new apps which will give consumers access to its range of multilingual news content via Nokia's Series 40 devices, including the Nokia Asha smartphone range.

The apps offer up-to-date news content from the websites spanning 11 language services of BBC World Service including BBC Hindi such as BBC Arabic, BBC Brasil (in Portuguese), BBC Chinese, BBC Hindi, BBC Indonesia, BBC Mundo (in Spanish), BBC Russian, BBC Turkce, BBC Ukrainian, BBC Urdu and BBC Vietnamese.

The apps will be available for existing Series 40 devices, in addition to the expanding Nokia Asha device range - including the recently announced Nokia Asha 308 and Nokia Asha 309 smartphones.

BBC global news controller of digital and technology, James Montgomery, commented, "The development of such a wide range of BBC languages apps for Nokia phones means the reach of our languages services continues to increase by offering audiences simple mobile access. Nokia's Series 40 devices are still the most popular in the world, with more than 675 million handsets in the market to date."

Bryan Biniak, vice president and general manager, global partnering and application development, Nokia, said, "As the world's best known news source, we're delighted to see the BBC extend their mobile reach to our base of 675 million Nokia Asha and other Nokia Series 40 devices in the market, with these local language apps. The incorporation of Nokia Xpress Browser technology will help drastically reduce data consumption for our consumers in low bandwidth countries, while delivering a fantastic news app experience."

The new BBC apps are free and available to download in local languages from Nokia Store.