Mobile language apps help millions learn for less, more often

Learning by app: Language apps for smartphones and tablets are threatening to replace the traditional language class.

FRANKFURT: Smartphone apps that help people learn languages for free or nearly free, a few sentences at a time, are piling pressure on established education firms and setting the pace for how to make lessons more engaging. 

Phone and tablet-based mobile products from newcomers like Germany's Babbel, Britain's Memrise and US-based Duolingo have overtaken names like Berlitz and computer self-learning pioneer Rosetta Stone in terms of audience, if not yet sales or teaching sophistication, market researchers say.