With mere days left till the opening whistle of the FIFA World Cup in South America, content providers and application producers are bracing to launch programs that will let fans get a more comprehensive, more ubiquitous experience with the tournament. Since the games will take place in the southern hemisphere, making it difficult for many to watch at convenient times during the day, the market for creative solutions that enhance access to reliable, timely information is said to have considerable potential. Also importantly, hand-held devices, from smartphones to pen tablets, have reached the level of usability that makes them a competitive choice besides the PC, with its appealing Internet web design, or TV, with its live commentary.

A few content providers are set to use the world's most anticipated football event to test their mobile and gadget applications. ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup is a comprehensive app that covers a vast ground between tournament history, team-by-team analysis and live coverage when the event gets rolling soon. It is rich in historical information going back to the beginnings in 1930, with complete databases of players, games and statistics. Its resources on the 2010 World Cup are impressive and bound to satisfy the most fanatical fans. For a moderate premium, the application offers a host of live services, like scoring alerts, radio commentary or video highlights.

Another notable application is Fox Soccer Channel Ticket to South Africa which was intended to provide some original commentary from top experts that is unavailable elsewhere on the Internet. It was created to make use of vast sports resources of the News Corporation and integrate and trim its output to mobile needs. It looks sleeks and utterly readable, with a fancy scroll to be updated as the tournament starts, but in terms of information quality and quantity it leaves quite a bit to be desired.