The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, has been added to the Talking English Dictionary application for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch.

Paragon Software Group, a software developer and content provider for mobile devices and desktop PCs, launched the Talking English Dictionary, available via Apple's iTunes App Store. Oxford University Press's OED has been coupled with Paragon's SlovoEd engine to bring dictionary content to iPhone consumers.

"The main strategy behind the launch of the Talking Oxford Concise English dictionary for iPhone and iPod touch is the ever-increasing market demand," said Dmitry Bekhterev, chief of sales and business development for Paragon Software Group's mobility division, Freiburg, Germany.

"iPhone and iPod touch customers are now able to have the best electronic dictionary support directly on their mobile device screen," he said.

Paragon also offers multilingual online handwriting recognition, localization, business and game applications, security software and other product lines.

"Oxford Concise English dictionary is one of our most popular products," Mr. Bekhterev said. "It has been always in demand not just for iPhone 3G or iPod touch but also for all other mobile platforms."

The Oxford Concise dictionary is available for Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Palm OS, Java, BlackBerry and desktop PCs.

These and Paragon's other dictionaries for the mentioned platforms can be downloaded directly from its Web site at http://www.penreader.com.

iTome
The latest Talking English Dictionary application was tailor-made for the iPhone, with all special characteristics and unique features of the device in mind.

The dictionary database contains more than 240,000 words, phrases and definitions in Queen's English.

Paragon also offers SlovoEd dictionary lines for American iPhone and iPod touch users.

Paragon Software Group offers American mobile users more than 70 other monolingual and bilingual dictionaries for various mobile platforms.

American English versions for iPhone and iPod touch include Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which is already available at the App Store (see story).

No Internet connection is required. Consumers can download the application once and use it without incurring any additional expenses.

The "History" feature shows the last 15 translated words, and the "Cross-Lookup" feature is an easy check of language comprehension.

For users wishing to take advantage of the premium audio abilities of the iPhone, a native British sound module of 20,000 words is available as well.

The Talking English Dictionary features rapid browsing through the SlovoEd engine, which compresses the dictionary content to a minimum of memory space while letting the user perform multiple learning, word reference and translation functions.

Consumers can find authoritative definitions with a single click without having to leave the active application and switch to the dictionary.

Power of Babel
Paragon Software Group offers more than 120 dictionaries for 30 languages.

The product is available for $24.99 (â?¬19.99) from the Apple Store at http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore.

The program is supported by iPhones with firmware 2.0, iPhone 3G and iPod touch with firmware 2.0.

Paragon Software Group is a provider of technology to the enterprise, SMB and consumer markets worldwide.

Paragon Software Group markets and sells in more than 150 countries and has offices in the United States, Germany, Japan and Russia.

PSG's Smart Handheld Devices Division and Epocware offer software for diverse classes of smart handheld devices and desktop PCs, including Palm OS, Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, Symbian OS, iPhone and iPod touch.

The mobile platform includes multilingual on-line handwriting recognition, localization, business and game applications and multilingual dictionaries.

Paragon will let Apple handle most of the marketing, although it will promote the product through various channels.

"Our Apple sales are located within the App Store, therefore we do not have many marketing instruments to promote this product," Mr. Bekhterev.

"We promote our iPhone and iPod touch product lines to our existing and prospective customers through our Web site, newsletters, media publications, industry events and word-of-mouth," he said.

Paragon sees this product as having mass-market appeal.

"The target audience for the Concise Oxford dictionary for iPhone consists of people who need the electronic version of the dictionary they have on their bookshelf at home in an easy-to-carry format," Mr. Bekhterev said. "This includes both native speakers and those studying the language or using it for business correspondence.

"The electronic version for mobile devices is always at hand and easy to carry whether you travel or when on-the-go," he said. "The partnership between Paragon and Oxford University Press is a strategic alliance between a leading mobile software developer and one of world's leading publishers."