Magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi's Car and Driver has launched a branded iPhone app featuring automotive images.

Mobile entertainment provider Viva Vision's first two iPhone applications, based on the Car and Driver and Cute ?n' Funny Pets brands, are now live in the iTunes App Store. The new mobile entertainment applications let consumers view images as an automatic slideshow, browse through the image galleries and save their favorite images to use as a wallpaper or share with friends.

"Viva Vision has grown quite a bit in the last couple of years, and despite the market turning, we ended the year pretty strong, so the strategy is to begin to exploit the smartphone market as well as new and emerging platforms, including iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile," Nick Montes, president/CEO of Viva Vision, Santa Monica, CA

"These two apps are part of our aggressive push to exploit new distribution channels, and there's been a lot of buzz around the iPhone," he said. "We believe smartphone market will grow exponentially."

Viva Vision is a provider of entertainment applications and content for slideshows, video on demand and live video for mobile phones.

Viva Vision claims to be able to reach more than 250 million wireless subscribers worldwide.

The Car and Driver slideshow app lets consumers check out images of various cars from the past, present and future on their handset. This app features automatic playback through dozens of cars.

Consumers can pause the slideshow, zoom in and out and save their favorite images to their phone to share with friends or use as their wallpapers. New cars are updated regularly.

The Car & Driver app launched on Verizon Wireless a year and a half ago targeting predominantly men, and Viva Vision has taken that product into the smartphone market.

The Cute ?n' Funny Pets slideshow app, launched a year ago on a variety of different carriers, lets pet lovers see their favorite furry friends caught on camera via their handset.

The iPhone app includes images of puppies at play, cuddling kittens and other photos of pets designed to appeal to younger females, which Viva Vision believes is an underserved demographic.

Consumers can play the slideshow, pause on favorite images and save favorite images to their iPhone photo album. New pet photos are added regularly.

While the majority of Viva Vision's products are subscription-based, the iPhone apps are being monetized via the pay-per-download model.

Each of Viva Vision's iPhone applications are priced at $0.99.

Viva Vision hopes to offer ad-supported apps in the future, but the company doesn't have permission from its partners to do that at this time.

The company envisions establishing individual brands with Web sites and WAP sites with teaser content driving them to download applications.

"As the mobile world evolves, everyone is getting innovative about how to generate more revenue for the bottom line," Mr. Montes said.

Verizon has set up its own smartphone storefront, and Viva Vision is taking its entire suite of products there.

The company also has plans to create iPhone apps for all of its slideshow content, including Sports Illustrated.

While Viva Vision currently relies on carrier marketing support, including on-deck and POS advertising, the company is veering off-deck and plans to rely on the viral nature of its mobile content.

Viva Vision has a deal with Handango and plans to launch a variety of different products by the end of March.

"We know we're popular on carriers, so it's time to build our own audience," Mr. Montes said. "These are the first of many apps to be ported and developed for the iPhone, and we'll start tackling other smartphone platforms soon after.

"We've been told by our carrier partners that they've been selling more smartphones than they ever have before," he said. "They're popular with everyone from kids to soccer months."