BARCELONA, Spain, February 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forum Nokia
(NYSE: NOK) today announced the final winners in its global Calling All
Innovators contest for mobile applications and solutions to help improve the
quality of life on the planet, and issued a call for a new round of
compelling mobile application submissions in the competition's next phase.
The winners were honored at the Forum Nokia Calling All Innovators Award
Ceremony during the annual GSMA Mobile World Congress, and were selected from
among nearly 1,000 developers who competed in Eco-Challenge, Emerging Markets
and Technology Showcase categories with mobile applications designed to
contribute toward building a better world.
The next phase of Calling All Innovators announced today in Barcelona
challenges mobile and web application developers worldwide to submit
best-of-breed applications in three categories: Internet Innovation, Flash,
and Emerging Markets. Prizes include cash, the opportunity to demo at Nokia
World in September, and Spotlight placement of their winning application in
Nokia's newly announced Ovi Store.
Challenged to create applications to improve the quality of life around
the world, the grand prize winners of Calling All Innovators are: GreenDrive
by Road-Guard (Israel), in the Eco-Challenge category; Nano Ganesh by Santosh
Ostwal (India), in the Emerging Markets category; and X Dancery by Simlife
Ltd. (China), in the Technology Showcase category.
Each of the grand prize winners received a cash award of USD 25,000 and
will receive help in distributing their mobile applications to consumers
worldwide. First place winners in each category received USD 10,000, and
second-place winners each received USD 5,000.
"The high caliber of these nine winners in the first iteration of Calling
All Innovators underscores the remarkable, ongoing creativity and innovation
that currently defines the mobile developer community around the globe," said
Rob Taylor, Director of Forum Nokia. "In the next phase of Calling All
Innovators, Forum Nokia challenges developers to help further drive the
enhanced use of mobile devices in real-world scenarios with truly innovative
applications and services that are designed specifically for the Nokia N97,
built with Flash technology, or specifically targeted at users in Emerging
Markets worldwide."
During the first round of Calling All Innovators, nearly 250,000 unique
visitors and more than 12,000 developers from around the world registered
with Forum Nokia, the world's largest mobile developer community.
The nearly 1,000 developers from 57 countries who submitted mobile
applications were narrowed to 11 finalists in January, with a panel of judges
selecting the final winners in each of the following categories:
ECO-Challenge: Applications or solutions to minimize mobility's global
environmental impact and enable consumers to make sustainable lifestyle
choices that reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Grand Prize: GreenDrive (Israel) - An application that promotes vehicular
fuel efficiency by sensing current and impending road conditions that
influence fuel consumption and providing real-time driving directions for the
shortest route in the quickest time legally allowable.
1st Place: TigerMap (China) - An eco-friendly city guide application that
makes choosing public transportation easier, combining up-to-the-minute mass
transit information with recommendations of the best restaurants,
entertainment, hotels and shopping in more than 150 cities throughout China.
2nd Place: Ticketek Mobile Ticketing (Argentina) - A Series 40 and S60
Java electronic-ticketing application that reduces paper consumption by
allowing consumers to use a barcode stored on their phone to gain admission
to events.
Runner-up: Green Phone (India) - An S60 application maximizing battery
life through improved regulation of device backlight, WLAN, Bluetooth and
charger power consumption.
Emerging Markets: New mobile solutions to improve the daily lives of
millions in developing nations, focused on areas such as education, health
data access, infotainment and agriculture.
Grand Prize: Nano Ganesh (India) - This application allows farmers in
India to establish remote contact with distant, modem-equipped electric
irrigation pumps , to check on power supply and pump operation without the
need to travel long distances .
1st Place: mPedigree (Ghana) - This application allows users to
text-message at no cost a quality-authentication code found on the packaging
of anti-Malarial and other medications to a provisioned mobile shortcode in
order to guard against counterfeit drugs believed to be responsible for an
alarming number of deaths, especially in the developing world.
2nd Place: DigitalICS (Digital Internal Control System) (Mexico) - With
this application, agricultural co-ops can inspect the growing practices of
their members and upload the data to a website for reporting and analysis in
order to verify the growers' adherence to standards that include Fair Trade
Certified and Certified Organic.
Technology Showcase: Applications using Flash Lite, Java, Python, open
source or other technologies supported by Series 40 or S60 devices that
create a compelling end-user experience for individuals or communities:
Grand Prize: X Dancery (China) - This application, fully optimized for
the S60 5th Edition's touchscreen UI and motion sensor technology, and with
advanced 3D-graphics rendering capabilities, analyzes any MP3 file to
automatically generate a unique tempo-based game for each selected musical
track.
1st Place: kReader Mobile (U.S.) - This multi-language text-to-speech
application with cross-language translation capabilities uses the camera
phone to digitize any book, letter, receipt or other printed document and
translate the captured text into audio that is "read" back to the user.
2nd Place: Neuscreen (Thailand) - This application utilizes the drawing,
touch-screen and camera functionalities of a Nokia N95 device connected to a
normal television set to track the motion of a pen light and enable "virtual"
drawing, as well as projection and manipulation directly on the TV screen of
images stored on the mobile device.
Runner-up: PhotoMap (Germany) - This application digitizes and stores a
photograph of any fixed public map taken with a camera phone for easy access,
browsing and geo-referencing on the mobile device.
In the next round of Calling All Innovators, Forum Nokia is challenging
developers to create applications that will enhance the use of mobile devices
in real-world scenarios, in the following categories:
Internet Innovation - Calling on web developers to transform
consumer-focused ideas into real applications on Nokia devices using
technologies that include Nokia Web Runtime, XHTML, CSS, Java Script, AJAX,
widgets and other standards-based web technologies.
Flash - Challenging creative developers and designers to build compelling
applications that expand the capabilities and user benefits of Flash Lite on
Nokia S60 devices.
Emerging Markets - Urging developers to create innovative applications
across mobile technology platforms - ranging from SMS through Series 40 and
S60 device platforms - in order to meet the needs and improve the daily lives
of millions living in rural and semi-urban areas worldwide.
The "Internet Innovation" category is being conducted in tandem with
Nokia's Widget Design Competition, which invites consumers to submit their
best ideas for new widgets to be featured in Nokia's newly announced Ovi
Store. The winning designer will receive a Nokia N97 pre-loaded with a
working version of the winning widget. Winning widget ideas will be announced
in March, and those ideas will be made available to an elite group of
developers to compete face-to-face at the Nokia N97 Calling All Innovators
"Hackathon" during the Nokia Developers' Summit in Monaco on 28 - 29 April
2009.
Application submissions will remain open through 30 June, at
http://www.callingallinnovators.com, with regional finalists announced on 15
August. The grand prize winners in each category will be announced at Nokia
World in September.
More information about the grand prize winners of Forum Nokia's Calling
All Innovators contest can be found online at www.callingallinnovators.com.
The launch of the next Calling All Innovators competition, including
complete guidelines and rules for the three new categories, will be available
on the contest website starting on 13 March 2009.
About Forum Nokia
Nokia's global developer program, Forum Nokia connects developers to
tools, technical information, support, and distribution channels they can use
to build and market applications around the globe. From offices in the U.S.,
Europe, India, Japan, China, and Singapore, Forum Nokia provides technical
and business development support to developers and operators to assist them
in achieving their goal of successfully launching applications and services
to consumers and enterprises. More information is available at
http://www.forum.nokia.com.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and
growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We make a
wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to
experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business
mobility and more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet
services, as well as our enterprise solutions and software, is a key area of
focus. We also provide equipment, solutions and services for communications
networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.
http://www.nokia.com
