GSMA Announces Winners Of 2008 Mobile Innovation Global Awards
13 February 2008
13th February 2008, Barcelona, Spain: Innovation took the spotlight last night as the overall winner of the Mobile Innovation Global Awards was announced. Francis MacDougall of visionary technology company GestureTek accepted the Award from Kurt Sillén, Head of Ericsson Mobility World and Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer of the GSMA during the Global Mobile Awards gala evening at Barcelona’s National Palace at the Fira.
Prior to the Mobile Innovation Marketplace in Barcelona, sponsored by Ericsson, innovators submitted Award entries in one of five categories, which were reviewed by a panel of judges that included senior executives and managing partners from 3i, Carmel Ventures, Ericsson, Global View Partners, Rogers Wireless, SFR, Telecom Italia, and Telefonica O2 Group.
The judges said: “It was a difficult choice. We selected GestureTek as the overall winner because of the truly innovative interface that we believe will help exponentially improve the consumer experience on mobile handsets for menu navigation, content selection, gaming, and other uses in the future.”
“User experience has been a major headline within the mobile industry. GestureTek gives the mobile industry a great competitive interface that can be incorporated into many current and future handsets removing a significant barrier to consumers use of mobile devices today,” added the judges.
The shortlisted companies in each category presented their technologies, applications and services over two days at the Mobile World Congress. The winners of each category were announced and presented at the Mobile Innovation Marketplace yesterday. From the category winners, GestureTek was the overall winner.
The judges said: "Following the innovation seen at the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau it was great to see 10 new innovators in Barcelona. They are all worthy category finalists and emphasise the depth and strength of innovation in our global industry.”
“Driven by entrepreneurial spirit and technical excellence, the potential of these companies and their innovations is enormous. The immense enthusiasm and commitment shown by all the finalists companies has proved that they have what it takes to succeed in the mobile world,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer of the GSMA.
The Mobile Innovation Global Awards form part of the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Marketplace, which encourages and promotes new ideas for the mobile industry by bringing together smaller companies developing innovative mobile products, industry investors and mobile operators.
Overall Winner
- GestureTek, USA
Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology
- Inside Contactless, France
Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform
- Flexenclosure, Sweden
Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market
- GestureTek, USA
Most innovative Consumer Application or Service
- Tagattitude, France
Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up
- Audience, USA
More information on the Mobile Innovation Market can be found at: www.mobileinnovation.org
Notes to Editors:
About the GSMA:
The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.
The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association's members serve more than 2.5 billion customers - 85% of the world's mobile phone users.
For more information please contact:
Mark Smith or David Pringle
GSM Association
Email: press@gsm.org
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