Targeting sports lovers on-the-go, Sports Illustrated Digital is launching its first downloadable mobile application just in time for March Madness.

MySI Mobile is a subscription-free, ad-subsidized application enabled by Action Engine that allows Windows Mobile users to track scores, schedules and standings. Users can also view Sports Illustrated photos, read the latest sports news and set calendar alerts for upcoming games on the mobile phone.

"MySI Mobile recognizes the needs of the mobile audience: Quick and easy access to the content you want the most when you're out and about," said John Paris, director of mobile products at Time Inc. Interactive, New York.

"For the sports fan, this boils down to one question: How did my team do? I also think the ability of the application to add upcoming games to your calendar reflects the increasing use of the mobile phone as a remote control to manage your life," he said.

MySI beta is accessed by texting "MYSI" to 58585 to receive a text message with a link to download the service, or by typing http://www.mysi.actionengine.com/provision into a mobile browser.

Sports Illustrated launched its WAP site in 2000 and upgraded to WAP 2.0 in 2002.

"This is the first time the title has launched a downloadable mobile application," Mr. Paris said. "However, I haven't seen anything like it in terms of the focus on personalization that we built into it."

Sports Illustrated Digital is looking to the mobile phone as one of the most important ways to deliver their content to busy consumers on-the-go, said Anne Baker, vice president of marketing at Action Engine, Bellevue, WA.

"Just like the Internet, companies like Sports Illustrated want to deliver their content free to consumers and generate their revenues from advertising," she said.

Sports Illustrated is Time Inc.'s leading sports title, competing with Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN The Magazine. Sports Illustrated is known for its annual swimsuit issue.

Action Engine's technology is used to create and ad-enable mobile applications that run on a variety of phones. Some brands that Action Engine has worked with are AOL, The Wall Street Journal, TiVo and MSNBC.com.

The challenges addressed with this mobile offering are usability, content access and price sensitivity.

"Offering consumers subscription-free applications is a new concept that is becoming more popular," Ms. Baker said.

"While many wireless operators are still forcing consumers to pay subscription fees to download mobile applications, many of Action Engine's media brand customers are turning to mobile advertising as a way to prevent consumers from having to pay a monthly fee," she said.