Patrik Hedlund, Marketing Manager at Ericsson�s Business Unit Multimedia, says that there is a big need for widgets on the market, and that this was the main reason for launching the Widgets Awards.
"We have had lots of positive feedback from our operators saying that these are the kinds of widgets they�ve been looking for," he says. "They also appreciate that we are carrying out this activity for the developer community."
The winning entry was a location-based service that provides local news wherever you are in the world. The Mobile World News application was developed by Victor Garzon and Jhon Samboni who attend the Universidad de Cauca in Colombia. The team will be sharing the top prize of SEK 150,000 (about USD 25,000).
Hedlund says the competition attracted entries from all over the world, with China and India well represented, and even numbers of professional programmers and academics among the entrants.
"It has been an excellent challenge, resulting in many great widgets that we hope to use going forward," Hedlund says.
In second place, and collecting a prize of SEK 100,000 (about USD 16,000), was an entrant from the ArcMage software company in G�vle, north of Stockholm, Sweden. Dan Kopparhed and Anders St�dberg wrote a game application called Quest, which enables a game master to organize outdoor treasure hunts using GPS services.
In third place, receiving a cash prize of SEK 50,000 (about USD 8,000), was another Swedish entry called Personal Shopper, developed by Fredrik W�ngberg at Strikersoft. The widget promises to take the worry out of shopping by enabling users to create their own shopping lists and then tick off items as they make their purchases.
All the winning widgets, and many of the others entered, will now be marketed through operators that have implemented Ericsson�s e-store, which is where all the company�s applications are stored. Among the many excellent widgets that did not make it to the final was a medical application that enables users to take pictures of their skin conditions and then send them to participating skin specialists for diagnosis. Another optimizes transactions between taxi drivers and their clients.
This is the first time Ericsson has held a widget competition and the aim is for the company to hold a similar event next year.
"We want to be perceived as a driver in this area and to be viewed as a company that encourages people to develop their ideas," Hedlund says.
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