ABC News Fires Up Kindle App

Launches version of its app for Amazon's Kindle Fire

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/24/2012 12:00:00 PM

In a sign that Amazon's Kindle Fire has become an increasingly important platform for app developers, ABC News launched a version of the ABC News app for the popular tablet.

Over the last year, ABC News reports that its mobile traffic has tripled as part of an expanded push by the news organization to supply more mobile content. The Kindle app launch adds to a mobile product suite that also includes Android, iPhone and most recently a revamped iPad app.

"By partnering with Amazon, ABC News will deliver news and video content to a new and growing digital audience", said Doug Vance, VP of product strategy for ABC News, in a statement. "ABC News' mobile page views have grown over 50% each month since 2011 and our expansion to the Kindle Fire is the next step in growing our tablet user base".

The importance of those tablet efforts was also highlighted by a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, which found that 56% of tablet owners get their news on mobile devices each day, up from 53% in 2011.

The Android app, which is available for free in Amazon's app store, includes top news headlines, live news video and clips from ABC News programs and a variety of social media tools.