National Geographic has released the World Atlas application, the latest offering in the publisher?s ever-growing mobile platform.

Now available via Apple?s iTunes, the application lets iPhone and iPod touch users explore the globe in numerous ways, including the antique view, the classic ocean or political view and the satellite view. World Atlas showcases how National Geographic?s application development team is furthering the organization?s vision to deliver rich interactive experiences across platforms and engage audiences in new ways.

?National Geographic is a leader in the maps industry, thus it was natural for us to extend distribution of our rich mapping content to mobile platforms,? said Aaron Kohn, vice president of corporate strategy and general manager of mobile at National Geographic, Washington.

?The continued growth of LBS services and capability on mobile provides National Geographic with a great opportunity to showcase our products and services across maps and travel,? he said. ?We will also continue to expand our mobile content offerings in other areas such as books, education, kids and games.?

The National Geographic Society is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world. The organization's interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history.

The National Geographic went mobile for the first time in 2008 (see story). While National Geographic does not currently run a premium SMS subscription offering, it is using text-messaging to generate donations.

Atlas scrubbed
National Geographic?s World Atlas application costs $1.99 in the App Store.

The company leveraged its in-house expertise to develop this application.

?This is the same team that produces our many successful digital mapping products and services, such as Topo and Trails Illustrated,? Mr. Kohn said.

Through World Atlas, users can find themselves on the map using their device's GPS functionality or build customized maps with pins and photos using the application?s built-in searchable index of more than 6 million places.

The application features the same detail, accuracy and artistic beauty found in National Geographic?s wall maps and atlases.

National Geographic believes that the target demographic for the application is broad.

?We have found that the mapping content resonates well across many demographic areas for various reasons?whether it be older users who already have established brand trust by using our maps for many years, younger users who will use the atlas as an educational tool and the large iPhone demographic in between who can benefit from the app as a reference and utility tool,? Mr Kohn said.

Bada-bing
National Geographic has incorporated two flavors of Microsoft's Bing raster maps, both Road and Aerial-Hybrid map types, into the World Atlas iPhone application.

On the intermediate zoom scales, users can toggle between National Geographic continent maps - in either the political or executive map styles - and either of the Bing map types, allowing for different perspectives of the same map area.

The real benefit, though, is that users can continue zooming in past the continent-level maps all the way to street-level detail on the Bing maps, allowing for deep exploration anywhere in the world.

National Geographic is accessing these Bing map tiles directly from Microsoft's servers under an enterprise-level agreement between the two companies.

Demographic Geographic
National Geographic has a host of other applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The National Geographic: Herod?s Lost Tomb application lets users explore the ancient biblical world, uncover hidden archaeological clues and help researchers solve the mystery of Herod?s Lost Tomb in this hidden-object game. It is available in free and 99-cent versions.

The company's Plan It Green application lets players be the mayor of Greenville, transforming the city as they build ecohomes, apply green upgrades and develop environmentally clean jobs and industries. It is available for $3.99.

National Geographic?s Kingdom of the Blue Whale is a jigsaw puzzle game that features more than 50 undersea images from National Geographic. It is available in free and 99-cent versions.

Spot It Animals and Spot It Nature are puzzle games that stimulate learning about an assortment of animals and their habits and habitats, and about geology, geography and nature. Both are available in free and 99-cent versions.

Jigsaw: Animals and Jigsaw: Nature are photo puzzle games that feature animal and nature photographs from National Geographic?s vast image library. Both are available in free and 99-cent versions.

The Cesar Says? sound board features a variety of Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan?s well-known quotes on how to rehabilitate dogs and train people. It is available as a free download.

National geomarketing
Mr. Kohn said that one of the strengths of National Geographic is the cross-promotion opportunities available across the organization?s many distribution channels.

For the National Geographic Atlas, the organization has already done cross-promotion through its Traveler magazine property. It is looking at additional promotional opportunities in conjunction with the next version of its flagship print World Atlas.

?The ideal scenario would be to replicate what NatGeo did with the launch of Herod's Lost Tomb object finder game,? Mr. Kohn said.

?We were able to tie the launch of the iPhone game to a cross-society initiative, which included a scientific press release, a cover story in the magazine, a PC game and a show premiere on the NatGeo Channel,? he said.