Ericsson has confirmed that it will host its Application Awards for the fifth consecutive year.
The contest has two categories, for students and small- and medium-sized enterprises, who are invited to submit Android and iOS apps.
The theme of the 2014 competition is Apps for Working Life, in support of Ericsson’s vision of a Networked Society through a combination of mobility, broadband, the cloud, applications and services – where anything and everything is connected.
Anders Lindblad, President, Ericsson, Middle East said, “Mobile subscriptions in the Middle East grew nine percent year-on year – or eight million – to 284 million in the first quarter of this year, mainly fueled by strong growth in smartphones. This signals the vast number of opportunities in mobile application development.
“Considering this, and combined with the talent pool we have in the Middle East, we expect to receive a good number of unique and innovative applications from the region in this year’s Application Awards competition, all with the ambition to leverage on the rapid growth of smartphone demand in this part of the world.”
First prize at the awards is EUR 25,000, second prize is EUR 10,000, while third to 10th prizes include diplomas and honorary mentions.
The winner of the student category in 2013 was Portugal’s GreenSpark, who offered a solution based on energy efficiency.
The UK’s TboxApps was the winner in the company category. Their solution was based on usage patterns in order to get access to instant messages and quickly get help.
In all, 192 teams took part in the 2013 competition – compared with 143 in 2012 – from 52 countries.
