JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Independent media organisation, the Creamer Media group, has launched what it believed to be the first South African-developed iPhone 3G application, with its Mining Weekly Online publication set to be one of the myriad of applications available for the device.

Creamer Media CEO Kenneth Creamer explained that the 27-year old media group had a philosophy of developing traditional news values, over new platforms, using new technology as it became available.

"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," said 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," said Creamer.

Incorporating 3G wireless technology, the iPhone 3G combines three products in one, that of the mobile phone, a wide-screen iPod and a breakthrough Internet device with rich hypertext mark-up language email and full web browsing.

The device was launched in 21 countries in July this year, 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 Vodacom only launched the device, locally, at the end of September.

A team of local developers at Generator Consulting took up the challenge of developing the application, that was designed by Creamer Media's in-house team, to 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 through the online applications store.

"It was our strategic mission to be the first in South Africa to develop an iPhone application and make it available to all iPhone users," said Creamer.

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 best be served through the Mining Weekly iPhone application.

"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," stated Creamer.

The application would 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 would be available, as well as real-time regional news updates for Africa, North America, South America, Australasia, Asia and Europe.