Mobile developer Coolgorilla has revealed that in the three weeks since the launch of the iPhone 3G, its   Talking Phrasebooks, sponsored by lastminute.com have received over 350,000 downloads, making them some of the most popular applications on the new device.
Currently available in French, German, Italian and Spanish, the Phrasebooks make embarrassing pronunciation attempts a thing of the past as the iPhone speaks selected foreign phrases, using recordings of real, native speakers.
Thanks to a sponsorship deal with Internet travel and leisure company lastminute.com, the applications are free to download, though Coolgorilla notes that with similar products selling for around $10 (5), it has, in partnership with lastminute.com, effectively given away over $3.5 million worth of free software. The company is now preparing Portuguese and Greek versions of the phrasebooks, which will be ready by the end of August. It also plans versions in Dutch, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, Korean, Polish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Turkish and is seeking sponsors for these language versions.
Customer feedback has been immense, says Coolgorilla Managing Director, Roy Forsdick. Weve had hundreds of emails from iPhone users thanking us for the phrasebooks and asking us for new languages, which will be available soon.
The Talking Phrasebooks can also be downloaded on to Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets at www.coolgorilla.mobi on the mobile phone. For iPod users, meanwhile, all current versions of the phrasebooks can also be downloaded as a super-enhanced Podcast via iTunes.