ESPNcricinfo has revamped its mobile website, bringing an enhanced user experience across smartphone platforms and entry-level J2ME (Java) based phones.
The revamped ESPNcricinfo mobile website is based on HTML5 and features an interactive design, according to the company, offering a consistent user experience across smartphone platforms like iOS, Android, and Nokia's Asha as well as J2ME and entry-level java phones (including Nokia S40 devices).
The updated mobile website of ESPNcricinfo features visibly richer content, with a blend of live updates and scores, in addition to news, blogs, records, statistics and features.
ESPNcricinfo says that the mobile website has been developed by ESPNcricinfo's in-house product team in India, and will deliver better performance for users thanks to a faster, more dynamic platform. It also includes new features such as the ability to easily share content on social networks as well as the ability for users to view and post comments.
The new ESPNcricinfo mobile website also offers slider menus at the top and bottom that offer shortcuts to Live scores, News, Results, Fixtures, Specials, Blogs, Photos, Videos, Audios, Players, Records, Rankings, Points Table, Countries and Settings, in addition to a Search feature.
"Even though our mobile web presence has been enormously popular and an industry leader, it was time to take another big step forward. The aim was to provide improved performance, design and content experience that takes into account the changes in mobile and that is optimised across device screens and platforms. We want to be where our fans are, and in an on-the-go way that is engaging and makes use of newer technologies to provide the best for cricket fans. That is a philosophy that guides not only the mobile web site but the upgrades in our mobile apps and all that we do on the mobile platform," said Gaurav Thakur, Director - Mobile Products & Revenue, ESPNcricinfo and ESPN Digital Media, India.
ESPNcricinfo has also announced updates for its mobile apps that will be pushed in the week of November 25th bringing new features and design changes with an intent to enhance user experience.
The new ESPNcricinfo app will offer an option to set an alternate style for the home page, a choice to set reminders for upcoming matches, a new 'Tournaments' page, landscape mode support for the full scorecard in addition to introducing filters across the app to make content more streamlined and easier to access, as per the company.
The updated ESPNcricinfo app will also bring the ability to compare the statistics of two players, an option to view different types of match graphs, the ability to listen to podcasts as the user browses through the app or other apps, support for related links for a news item on the home page, and the ability to share score updates through SMS.
ESPNcricinfo will also introduce 'Cricket on Twitter' and 'ESPNcricinfo on Facebook' services, though it has not offered detailed information about these services. The app's Android version will also get Widget support.
The company has also promised an updated iOS app optimised for iOS 7 but it's not clear if the above update would bring that change. In addition to iOS and Android platforms, the app update is also extending to the Windows Phone and Nokia Asha platforms. The company added that updates to ensure compatibility with a range of Windows devices are in the pipeline.
The ESPNcricinfo app is now available across iOS and Android (phones and tablets), Windows Phone, Nokia Asha and as a Windows 8 multi-screen app. The company claims to have collectively logged over 4 million downloads across all platforms.