13 reach semi-finals at Navteq Global LBS Challenge EMEA region

Thirteen applications selected and competing in the finals for the Grand Prize during Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.

Nokia owned Navteq, a global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions (LBS) and vehicle navigation, has announced the finalists of the EMEA edition of the Navteq Global LBS Challenge.

The Global LBS Challenge is a world-wide developer competition which invites developers to build and submit original, pre-commercialised applications using dynamic positioning technology and Navteq maps. There are five categories: content, enterprise, entertainment & leisure, navigation and social networking.

Over 180 companies registered for this year’s Global LBS Challenge in EMEA. During the preliminary round judging in Paris in December, all competing applications which had passed the eligibility criteria were evaluated on the basis of commercial feasibility, functionality and design by a panel of judges from Navteq and the industry.

Thirteen contestants were been selected to move on to the final judging and awards ceremony during the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.

The Finalists for Navteq Global LBS Challenge in EMEA are:

Entertainment & Leisure

• MSG Software (While on the Move), Finland: SkiInLapland: A ski-guide application that lists the top ski resorts and allows ski enthusiasts to share text, images and videos about the places they visit. Accurate pin points allow you to locate specific areas easily and store comments and evaluations of places visited. It also lets you swap images and videos with friends about the places of interest in that area.

• Connecthings, France: ezStroll: An advertising application that allows you to select a geographical area and receive promotional messages from surrounding businesses and visitor sites (shops, museums, etc).

• Yoose GmbH, Germany: Mobile Coupons: A “mobile wallet” application replacing plastic loyalty cards and paper coupons from stores and travel providers, delivering them directly to your mobile. The mobile phone becomes a one-to-one marketing tool with measurable response rates for each individual user. The consumer can save shopping lists on the phone and benefit from greater savings and personalised offers always readily available.

Social Networking category

• Birkett Enterprise Ltd, UK: PhoneLocator, a native S60 realtime GPS tracking application for Nokia S60 phones. It allows you to view the location of your phone and a trail of where it has been using this website. Phonelocator has advanced features like "Intelligent Update" that reduces the amount of data sent by the application and "Battery Saver" that turns off the GPS when the phone is stationary or the GPS signal is too weak. Phonelocator can be run in the background and started when your phone is booted.

Enterprise category

• Carbon Hero Ltd, UK: Carbon Diem: An application using GPS technology to track a person’s carbon footprint based on his/her transportation choices. It tracks your travel and informs you as to how much energy you could save while using different means of transportation (walking, bus, train, car etc). It also keeps track of all the places you have visited.

• MobGeo Ltd, UK: MobGeo: A location-based advertising application that delivers mobile coupons / vouchers to your phone when you select a geographic area on a map along with food or store preferences.

• NaviExpert Sp. z.o.o., Poland: MONAPI (Mobile Online Navigation API): An emergency services application for reporting an emergency event in a specific location. Browse a map, select a point and send an emergency request with a brief text description of the situation. Emergency services' employees are alerted on their mobile phones and can be guided to the emergency location by means of turn-by-turn voice navigation.

Navigation

• CCC, Hungary: Quest4POI: A mobile application that helps you find interesting Points of Interest (POIs) for specific locations. You can move around the map and it will highlight the number of attractions in a particular area to help make the most of your time available for sightseeing.

• Crambo Labs, Spain: Econav: A driving application that helps you save fuel through efficient routing, enabling you to select the most economical route to get to your chosen destination.

• T+1 Solutions, Estonia: EcoRide: A location-assisted car pooling application that allows you to develop your own car pooling community to save fuel costs and be more environmentally friendly by reducing the number of cars on the road. It enables you to find a ride, share a ride or even offer a ride and also gives you the option to share the application with a friend.

Content

• Kishonti Informatics Bt, Hungary: NaviGenie: Mapping information presented in a route planning application using high quality perspective mode 2.5D and 3D views of city and street maps as well as building footprints. There are several different user-customisable view options, including bird, satellite and street-perspective views.

• PH Informática SA, Portugal: CityGuide: An enhanced POI application with high level of clarity and accuracy photos, images and video imagery not typically available on today’s devices. The application also has a simplified process to set up appointments with friends.

• Skobbler GmbH, Germany: Skobbler: An application that allows young, urban consumers to share information, personal comments and recommendations on places and activities around the city. Skobbler provides useful tips on their mobile phones, combining local search of, for example, Navteq dynamic content such as events or movies with sponsored advertising links and GPS navigation to the advertised place.

The final judging will take place on Sunday, 15th February, on site during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The official judges are:

• Dr. Christoph Grote, VP Information and Communication Systems, BMW

• Rakesh Mahajan, Director, Global Mobility Marketing, BT

• Marc Prioleau, VP Marketing & Business Development, deCarta

• François René Letourneur, Partner/Board Member, I-Source Gestion • Jure Sustersic, Business Development Manager, LBS, Forum Nokia

• Steve Glagow, Vice President, Orange Partner

• Dr. Jay Han, Ph.D., Principal Engineer, Advanced Technologies Group, Samsung

• Jens Greve, Senior Manager, Head of Sony Ericsson Developer World, Sony Ericsson

• Carlos Marín Escriche, Telefonica Innovation Lab

• Martin Wirsing, Head of Business Development Special Projects, T-Mobile International AG, T-Mobile International AG (Deutsche Telekom)

• Sergio Cozzolino, VP of ICT Mobile Solutions, Telecom Italia

• Philipp Schläfer, Sr Manager, Internet Partnerships, Vodafone

• Vlad Mihalca, Head of Wind Innovation Lab, Wind


The EMEA winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on 17 February 2009.

For more details: EMEA Finalist 2009