In late November, at a ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, Ericsson rewarded the winners of this year's best mobile applications in its annual Mobile Application Awards.

Stefan Streit, Manager of Global Product Marketing at Sony Ericsson, was there and gave a presentation of Sony Ericsson's QuickShare™ products, providing fast and easy imaging and messaging capabilities. Stefan also handed over the prize for best mobile gaming application. There was lots of interest for Sony Ericsson and its developer offering, and it felt rewarding to see that most of the applications presented in the competition were running on Sony Ericsson handsets.

The Mobile Application Award is an international competition run by our parent company Ericsson. The purpose is to find the best, market-ready mobile applications focusing on services that add value, create convenience and make daily life and work easier and more effective.

The awards were held in Zurich's Maag Music Hall and had the air of an Academy Awards ceremony, complete with red carpet. Sony Ericsson sat in the jury for the competition leading up to the event.

Twelve companies' solutions were nominated - based on criteria such as professionalism, market potential, innovation, consumer friendliness and ease-of-implementation by the operators and the media industry. 276 companies from all over the world entered the awards. The top three mobile applications in each of four categories competed in the finals.

The 12 chosen finalists had five minutes each to convince the audience that their application should win. The finalists got the unique opportunity to present their services live to an exclusive audience comprising executives from mobile network operators, venture capitalists and other industry players. The winners were selected by the audience through live SMS voting.

The four categories and winning applications are:

• "Best Mobile Enterprise" application was won by Israeli company LocatioNet, which presented Mobile Workforce Management, a real-time fleet management service that combine and enhance current location-based features, such as maps, and allows businesses and organizations to track and manage mobile personnel and vehicles. Offices can assign tasks, send open orders and both text and picture messages, as well as assist workers out in the field with vital information. The service is capable of real-time as well as historical analysis.
  
  
• "Best Mobile Entertainment" application was won by Media Republic from the Netherlands with its daily Jong-Zuid TV soap opera in a format accessible to mobile handsets. Jong-Zuid delivers news via MMS, SMS, MNS Messenger and the Internet, and the audience can interact with the well-known cast via MMS.
  
  
• "Best Mobile Gaming" was won by Synergenix Interactive AB from Sweden. Their Rally PRO Contest is a three-dimensional rally game for mobile devices which allows players to race on 12 detailed tracks in four different environments. The player can via IR, Bluetooth or GPRS challenge other users with mobile handsets from different vendors supporting the Mophun™ technology (read more about Sony Ericsson and Mophun here).
  
  
• "Best Information Application" was won by NewBay Software. The application provides the possibility to create, update and transfer personal web diaries, so called 'blogs', from a PC to a mobile handset and vice versa.

In a complementary match-making session, the finalists met with operators from Europe, the Middle East and Africa to discuss possible business partnerships.

For more information:

• Read article from selection process>>
• More details about the winners of the competition in Ericsson's press release>>
• Read more about Sony Ericsson and Mophun™:
  - Technology Intro>>
  - Mophun Docs & Tools>>
• Sony Ericsson's relationship to Ericsson and collaboration regarding various developer activities>>