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The BBC Trust has asked the BBC to postpone its smartphone apps launch until the governing body has carried out a review.

The Trust will examine whether the scheme - first announced in February and originally scheduled for launch in April 2010 - constitutes a "significant change to BBC services". It will examine:

  • "the extent to which the change is likely to affect users and others;
  • "the financial implications of the change;
  • "the extent to which the change would involve the BBC in a new area of untested activity;
  • "and how long the activity will last."

When the corporation first announced that BBC News and BBC Sport were "to be repurposed" for smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android mobiles, the reaction was mixed, with some critics claiming developments were outside the BBC's remit .

But earlier this month BBC director of Future, Media and Technology Erik Huggers defended plans to delegates at the Guardian Changing Media Summit 2010 and said that BBC had been connecting news, sport and iPlayer content to mobile devices for "a very long time".

"What we're now doing is making the next leap into the world of Apple," he said. The aim, he said, was to make sure that "the same news that you get on the BBC website ... you will be able to get on your iPhone."

"Apps for me are no different from a browser. They really aren't. They are the exact same content, the exact same pictures, the exact same words. We don't do any more work on it."

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Written by
Judith Townend

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