Could AudioBoo soon be available on other mobile platforms, like S60 used on the evergreen Nokia 95?

AudioBoo has caught the imagination of a lot of people in the month since its launch. The ability to upload audio in podcast form straight from your phone to the internet is very powerful and I wrote a couple of excited pieces about it when I first signed up (here and here).

The Guardian has legitimised AudioBoo’s use in a professional journalistic context through the interviews they uploaded using the service from the G20 protests in London a couple of weeks ago and at today’s Hillsborough Disaster memorial service in Liverpool (see here). Rory Cellan-Jones at the BBC has been using it too, even going so far as to upload reports to AudioBoo before they’re transmitted by BBC News.

So, if it’s so useful why are more news outlets not utilising it? Part of the reason could be that it’s only currently available on the Apple iPhone. Most journalists I’ve met are equipped with a Nokia N95, a handset that has firmly established itself as “the ultimate journo-phone” over the past couple of years thanks to its good quality camera and solid video capability.

It’s likely that many of these journalists would jump at the chance to incorporate AudioBoo into their work. The problem is that newspapers aren’t really having the best time financially at the moment and are unlikely to want to buy their staff iPhones. There is a phone number anyone can call to record an AudioBoo. Call the UK number 0203 3936430 and instant AudioBoo goodness is yours. Unfortunately anything recorded this way is attributed to a generic user account so it can’t be easily found by potential listeners and advanced features like iTunes subscriptions to your recordings aren’t possible.

Meanwhile, the team at AudioBoo are too busy to port their app to the S60 operating system used by Nokia’s smartphones. In an exchange over Twitter this afternoon I asked AudioBoo team member Matt Waring if an S60 version was on the cards and he replied that they were busy concentrating on the service’s infrastructure and user interface at the moment. He did throw a very interesting bone though – “we could release the API if someone is willing to develop”. In other words, it seems the AudioBoo API is available to anyone with the skills to develop an app for other mobile platforms.

Since mentioning this on Twitter earlier, a Blackberry developer has asked me for more details so there’s obviously interest out there. If you’re interested in bringing the brilliance of AudioBoo to other mobile platforms like S60 or Blackberry get in touch with Matt Waring. You can find him on Twitter where his username is @mattwaring.

Let’s hope some developers take up the challenge as it would be great to see a wider group of people able to harness AudioBoo’s power.

[Image Credit: KhE on Flickr]