Vodafone Appstar Competition

RNS Number : 5707Z

Vodafone Group Plc

24 September 2009

 



24 September 2009

VODAFONE LAUNCHES A COMBINED €1,000,000 PRIZE FUND TO FIND THE BEST MOBILE WIDGETS

The winning developer, in each of the two phases of the Vodafone Appstar competition, will pocket €100,000

At its international Developer Event today, Vodafone is announcing the launch of a two-phased competition to find the most innovative and useful mobile widgets, giving two victorious developers the chance to bank up to €100,000 in prize money.  

Vodafone will outline the widget capabilities of the new Vodafone 360 mobiles at today's Developer Event in front of content publishers, web and mobile developers from around the world.

Split into two phases (the first phase now and second phase during 2010), the Vodafone Appstar competition has a combined prize fund of €1,000,000 which will be shared across eight of Vodafone's largest European operating companies to encourage innovation in the mobile application and widget space. The participating eight countries are: UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

In the initial round of each phase of the competition, developers from anywhere in the world can submit widgets compatible with the new Vodafone 360 mobiles to any one of these eight markets via a competition website. A panel of experts from the local Vodafone operating company will then select three winning entries based on three criteria:

• User experience

• Innovation 

• Value to the customer

The developers responsible for the top three mobile widgets will be awarded prize money of €25,000, €15,000 and €10,000 for coming first, second and third respectively. The €25k winner will also have their entry submitted into a Pan-European competition to decide the best of the best.

The eight competition winners' widgets will then be put to the public vote within the participating eight countries and the winning developer will pocket a further prize of €75, 000, bringing their total prize money to €100,000. The runner up will win a total of €50,000.

The competition format will then be repeated next year to encourage more participation.

'Vodafone is committed to encouraging talent and innovation in this area and we hope that this prize fund will provide a fitting incentive to help bring this talent to the fore,' said Pieter Knook, Director of Vodafone Internet Services. 'Our job is to bring relevant and local choices in widgets that will make the mobile internet more personal for our customers.'

Widgets or apps can range from those capable of giving you the latest news on your phone's home screen to location-aware travel tools.

Software developers will be asked to write applications based on the latest Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) Software Developer Kit found at www.jil.org.

For full details of the competition, please visit the website at www.jil.org/vodafone/appstar.

For further information please contact:

Vodafone Group

Media Relations

Tel: [phone]

About Vodafone

Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group with approximately 315 million proportionate customers as at 30 June 2009. Vodafone currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and around 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com.

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