By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney is launching free iPhone and iPod touch applications, giving fans access to Disney content and interactive features anywhere.
Disney.com, part of the Disney Interactive Media Group, said it will offer users of the popular Apple devices items like the new "Click2Life" feature that lets fans take pictures of images from the Disney.com Web site, and eventually in the physical world, and unlock exclusive content.
For instance, a teenager may one day see a poster of an upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean" film in a mall, snap a picture of the poster with an iPhone and then generate video content related to that picture or character.
Jason Davis, vice president of Disney.com, said in an interview that the media giant realized it already had a huge audience of iPhone and iPod touch users for its content on its existing mobile application on Disney.com.
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Disney.com reaches nearly 31 million unique visitors per month and said that among mobile Web sites, it ranks as the No. 1 entertainment mobile site.
It also has an expanding lineup of many paid applications currently available in Apple's App Store including Toy Story Mania!, Disney Fairies Fly, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Breakspin.
"Our iPhone and iPod touch traffic is heavily made up of kids and moms. The iPod touch has a very specific demographic geared to the tween," he said, adding that within Disney content, there are various safety controls.
"Because the applications are self-contained, once you're in the application, you can't get into anything else," he said.
The new application organizes Disney-branded content within one destination on each device, lets users interact with Disney characters through customizable photo frames and audio greetings, listen to Radio Disney live, watch music videos and buy Disney music on Apple's iTunes Store.
