Belgian women’s magazine Flair has recently launched a mobile version of its product, writes Dorien Aerts.

How does it work?

Once you sign up you are sent a text message containing a link, from which you download a mobile application of Flair. When you start the mobile application, you find a very attractive interface (for girls at least) with fashion articles and information about events.

But there’s more to it. Flair goes interactive with the application: you can participate in games, polls and tests. Stubru presentators Sofie and Peter, for example, tried out the ‘Which sex beast are you’-test.

Flair magazine appears weekly in Belgium and this also applies to the mobile magazine: users get a new mobile edition every week, which is automatically installed when you start the application.

How does it not work?

It does not work on all cellphones. The cellphone my employers provide me with, for example, is incompatible. When you look at the list of compatible cellphones, there are already quite a few models on which the Flair application works. And so it does function on the cellphone of one of my colleagues (see picture above).

I find it very brave for a women’s magazine to start with a mobile version. They are the first in Belgium, and definitely not the last. And let’s hope this initiative helps to break open the Belgian mobile internet market. Something the launch of the iPhone in Belgium tomorrow will probably also take care of!