New Oxford American Dictionary goes mobile

By Giselle Tsirulnik

December 9, 2008

Dictionary for mobile consumers

IPhone users now have access to the New Oxford American Dictionary right in the palm of their hands.

Handmark, a developer and distributor of mobile media, announced an application for iPhone and iPod touch, available on the Apple App Store. The dictionary contains more than 250,000 entries and definitions with content stored locally so it can be used without a wireless connection.

"Handmark continues to partner and work closely with trusted partners, such as Oxford and Zagat to bring their trusted experience to life on mobile devices," said Evan Conway, executive vice president of Marketing for Handmark, Kansas City, MO.

"The New Oxford American Dictionary is great, high-quality that adds value to the overall mobile experience on the iPhone giving users one click access to thousands of pages of reference materials into one simple application," he said. "This also adds to the extensive Handmark portfolio of high-quality mobile offerings for the iPhone."

New Oxford American Dictionary is the first of several Oxford University Press dictionaries Handmark will offer to iPhone and iPod touch users, including the Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, Oxford Thesaurus of English, and Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus.

While the application offers a vast collection of entries and definitions, New Oxford American Dictionary is designed to serve the user clearly, simply and quickly with precise guidance.

Bein the know while on the go

"With the New Oxford American Dictionary specifically, we are targeting people who have become accustomed to the trusted Oxford reference materials, but that want to have quick and easy access via their mobile (in this case specifically their iPhone)," Mr. Conway said.

Users can easily search for entries by name, bookmark dictionary entries for future reference, and even play audio of dictionary entries for correct pronunciation.

New Oxford American Dictionary is immediately available for an introductory price of $19.99 from Apple's App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore. The price then goes up to $9.99 from Handmark.

Dictionary in your pocket

"More and more of today's on-the-go consumers don't have easy access to the big physical resources of the past," Mr. Conway said. "In addition to other games, entertainment and productivity apps Handmark offers we are striving to make some of the best information offerings available for a fast and simple mobile environment.

"Strategically developed mobile applications can provide incredible value, leveraging new technology coupled with vast research/resources provided by Oxford," he said.

Comments on "New Oxford American Dictionary goes mobile"

1. Paul Robison says:

   December 31, 2008 at 11:59am

   It was supposed to have been $9.99! See http://www.handmark.com/iphone/index.php