iHave good news for iPhone users

Here’s some special holiday cheer for iPhone users. The iPhone application for charlotteobserver.com is in.

You can download it now at no charge at the online iTunes applications store. Let me know how well it works for you.

For people with Blackberrys, Androids, Evos and other smartphones, we continue to provide an excellent mobile phone Web site. Simply direct your phone to www.charlotteobserver.com and it will automatically lock in to the site.

I’m an Android user, and I find our mobile web site very useful. In the near future, we expect to roll out specialized apps for the Android and other popular phones.

If you’ve stayed with me this far and aren’t sure what I’m talking about, thank you. And now I’ll try to explain.

Basically, a smartphone is any phone designed to give you access to the Web. (About one out of every four cell phones in the United States is now a smartphone. By this time next year, it’s expected to be one out of every two.)

Each brand of smartphone has its own set of specialized features. To take advantage of those features when accessing a Web site (like www.charlotteobserver.com), you must download an application designed for both the site and that phone.

We now have that special application for iPhone users who come to charlotteobserver.com. We hope you enjoy it.