It is easy to see why the media world is getting so excited about mobile apps: quite simply, consumers love them.

Colin McCaffrey, director of products at apps developer 2ergo, which created theGuardian's app, explains: "Apps are simple to download and use, and they are packaged so people feel comfortable paying for them."

There are currently more than 150,000 applications in the Apple apps store and more than 10,000 apps designed for Google's Android mobile operating system.

Last September, Apple announced that more than two billion apps had been downloaded from its apps store; by March, it had passed three billion. Comscore estimates that 32% of the 228.5 million mobile subscribers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are using apps - a market of 74 million people.

Media companies have been quick to jump on the bandwagon, with theTelegraph, the Guardian and Sky among the many firms creating app versions of their content. Sky tested the water with its Sky News app last May, and it has since launched Sky Plus, Football Scores Centre, Cricket Scores Centre and, most recently, Mobile TV.