The Associated Press launched a new client application of its Mobile News Network for BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) on Monday, Business Wire reported.

Mobile News Network is a multimedia news portal. The new application can be downloaded for free at bb.apnews.com. First unveiled in May, the network works on all Blackberry devices.

“Developing an optimised version of the Mobile News Network for BlackBerry users has been a high priority for us,” said Jeffrey Litvack, general manager for mobile and emerging products at AP, according to the Business Wire release posted by MarketWatch. The AP is looking for feedback from MNN users, he said.

The MNN tallied more than 16 million page views in the United States in August, and more than 26 million page views in September, according to the AP, Business Wire reported.

In July, more than 20 million people in the United States accessed news via their mobiles, a 58 percent increase from the same time in 2007, Mark Donovan, a senior analyst for comScore M:Metrics, told Business Wire.

“BlackBerry owners, in particular, are voracious consumers of news, with 40 percent accessing news on their device,” he said.