The BBC has confirmed it is to launch three iPhone applications from April 2010, with versions for the Blackberry and phones running Google's Android software becoming available soon thereafter. The announcement was made today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The apps will be free of charge and provide news and sport coverage from the BBC website, including audio and video elements.

The Guardian reports that the News app will be available from April and the Sport app in May. There will be UK and international versions of each.

Speaking at the conference, Erik Huggers, BBC director of future media and technology, said: "It's been 12 years since the launch of BBC Online, but as media converges and technology accelerates, licence fee payers are increasingly using sophisticated handheld devices to access information. They tell us that they want to access the digital services that they have paid for at a time and place that suits them."

Indeed it surely is high time for such a move, considering Sky News and the Telegraph have already launched theirs for free, as well as international BBC rival, CNN. Unauthorised BBC apps and apps using BBC content are popular and have been available for quite some time.

There is also talk of a third app being released, which would put the BBC's iPlayer on a mobile platform. The project is highly ambitious however, and no date has been set for its release. Like the iPlayer itself, such an app would only be available within the UK.

Source: BBC, Guardian