The New York Times has relaunched its mobile application that is designed and formatted for tablets and smartphones running on Android.

The Android News app incorporates a responsive design navigation to help create a more seamless reader experience. Android devices are becoming as popular ? if not more so ? than iPhone devices and marketers must roll out mobile experience to reach any smartphone demographic.

?We want to be where our users are, expanding our reach to all promising mobile platforms and technologies, and relaunching our Android app is a part of our overall NYT Everywhere strategy,? said Linda Zebian, manager of corporate communications at the New York Times, New York.

?Early on, we experimented with a limited Android app targeted to 7-inch devices,? she said. ?Now, after the success of Google?s ICS design guidelines and with the more recent proliferation of high quality Android tablets, we created a truly intuitive, responsive Android app that is optimized for all device screen sizes.?

Mobile readership
The new Android app features more than 25 sections of New York Times news, information and opinion, including videos, slide shows and blogs.

Readers can also do some offline reading, as well as share articles, videos and slide shows with friends and family using different social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

To rev up the mobile reading experience, the New York Times has also rolled out text-to-speech functionality, which can read articles and blogs aloud using Google?s voice engine or users can choose another engine of choice.

?Users are increasingly consuming our content across multiple screens and devices, which is why we are steadfast in offering our content to our readers on the devices they use,? Ms. Zebian said. ?We are committed to delivering high quality experiences on our mobile apps, just as we do on NYTimes.com.

?For example, Android 3.0 features more than 25 sections of New York Times news, information and opinion, including videos, slide shows and, offline reading and a full set of share options for articles, videos and slide shows across social media and email,? she said.

Future endevours
The New York Times is actively developing for iOS, Android and other promising platforms.

Being on as many platforms as possible is ideal for marketers.

Consumers are constantly turning to their mobile devices to access news and content to stay up-to-date.

?It?s all about delivering the highest-quality journalism to readers across all platforms where they want to find us, and mobile is an area that The Times will continue to invest in moving forward,? Ms. Zebian said.

?If you look at all the mobile launches we?ve had over the past 12 months: 2 Election Apps for iPhone and Android, Web App for iPad, Flipboard, Windows 8, Android relaunch ? we are clearly working toward delivering the best experiences to readers on the platforms they use,? she said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York