Nokia’s Calling All Innovators Contest is back for 2010, and it is bigger than ever!

• Best mobile computing application: $50,000 (USD) in cash, plus inclusion in a multi-million dollar global marketing campaign.
• Best application for the Nokia N900: $50,000 (USD) in cash.
• Best cross-platform application using Qt: $50,000 (USD) in cash.
• Best locally relevant application with global potential: $15,000 (USD) in cash.

The world’s largest mobile operators have joined forces to launch an
open international applications platform, marking the largest unified
move to date by the operator community into the mobile apps space.

The so-called ‘Wholesale Applications Community’ will combine 24 of
the world’s largest mobile carriers, including America Movil, AT&T,
Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom Austria, MTN
Group, NTT Docomo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica,
Telenor, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, VimpelCom and
WIND. The four operators in the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile apps
initiative – Vodafone, China Mobile, SoftBank and Verizon Wireless – are
also included. The group serves a combined 3 billion mobile customers
across the globe. Industry association the GSMA has backed the move.

The alliance aims to create a wholesale platform for mobile apps that
provides a single point-of-entry for developers. The move is being seen
as the operator community’s challenge to the mobile application stores
currently offered by the likes of Apple, which are typically linked to a
specific device platform. The iPhone-maker’s hugely-successful ‘App
Store’ – launched in 2008 - registered its 3 billionth download last
month and has spawned numerous imitators. 

However, several handset vendors without a significant apps business –
including LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson – have already pledged their
support to the new operator-led initiative. It is hoped that the scheme
will provide application services over a far wider choice of devices
than available today.
In order to overcome what they term a
“fragmented” applications marketplace, the operators plan to use common
open standards that will allow developers to create applications across
multiple platforms. The alliance plans to initially use both the JIL and
OMTP BONDI requirements, evolving these standards into a common
standard within the next 12 months.

Operators are also eyeing the revenue-generating potential of getting
into the apps business. Although Apple has not disclosed how much
profit it makes from App Store, the firm takes a 30 percent slice of
revenue from every app it sells via its platform. It is likely that
operators will use a similar model; Vodafone, for example, also takes a
30 percent revenue share on its Vodafone 360 apps platform.

The Mobile Premier Awards announced the 20 finalists to the Mobile Premier Awards in Innovation: The best grassroots startup innovation chosen by their peers in partnership with MobileMonday, the global community of mobile professionals.

The finalists were chosen by an international jury of the most recognized mobile industry experts who will pitch their idea, application or project at the Mobile Premier Awards event that takes place in Barcelona, at the Petit Palau of Palau de la Musica on February 15, 2010 in front of investors, operators, media companies, peer entrepreneurs, and press and influential bloggers.

The year’s MPA best in Mobile Startup innovation Finalists are:

MobileMonday Austria - Mobilizy
MobileMonday Barcelona - fonYou
MobileMonday Berlin - spendino
MobileMonday Bogota - RedSalvavidas
MobileMonday Chennai - mobiSiteGalore
MobileMonday Copenhagen - Cepa Mobility
MobileMonday Edinburgh - Mobile Acuity
MobileMonday Estonia - TaxiPal
MobileMonday Lithuania - SendFlow
MobileMonday London - Audioboo
MobileMonday Milan - Soundtrckr
MobileMonday Munich - Aloqa
MobileMonday New Delhi - Voicetap Technologies
MobileMonday New York - PercentMobile
MobileMonday Oslo - Bipper Communication
MobileMonday Rest of EMEA - Layar
MobileMonday Silicon Valley - CloudMade
MobileMonday Slovenia - Visionect
MobileMonday Stockholm - MoSync
MobileMonday Tel Aviv - waze

The finalists chosen to the Innovation Awards will present along with the winners in the other categories chosen by our partner networks (see below).

Here’s a how to register to attend the Mobile Premier Awards.

The Mobile Premier Awards dinner

This year at a unique spot called the “Bel-Luna Jazz Club & Restaurant”. Dinner starts at 9pm and we can stay till late enjoying more drinks after the dinner including live jazz & groovy music. You can check the venue’s website here - http://www.bel-luna.com.

We kept the price at cost (60€) for MobileMonday chapters and participating startups. Don’t wait last minute to book since we have limited seats!

To confirm your attendance to the classic Mobile Premier Awards dinner including organizers, jury, chapter organizers, participating startups, partners, sponsors, bloggers, etc.

Reply to this message and I will send you a promotional code.

About the Mobile Premier Awards

The Mobile Premier Awards are the point of reference in startup premiers during the Mobile World Congress on February 15, 2010 in Barcelona and are organized in collaboration with some of the main networks in the industry including MobileMonday, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), MEX, MobileActive.org, Women 2.0 and the Women in Mobile Data Association.

This year we have received over 600 startup submissions from all continents to the different awards.

The Mobile Premier Awards online

Here are the Mobile Premier Awards Web Banners (series II). Feel free to use them on your website or blog!

    * rss-iconBLUE150Mobile Premier Awards RSS Feed
    * twittericonMobile Premier Awards on Twitter @mobilepremier
    * facebook-iconVisit our Facebook Fan Page.

    * Please use hashtag #mpa10 in your online communications.

We are pleased to announce that the first Annual Vietnam Ireland Business Forum will take place on the 16^th and 17^th of November at the Headquarters of the VCCI. The focus of this event, which is supported by the Vietnamese and Irish Governments, is to create partnerships between Vietnamese and Irish ICT companies and to bring new ICT products and Technologies to Vietnam. […]

For mobile phone applications to be commercially viable, they must be able to function with actual mobile phones and not just in a simulated computer trial. Juniper Research, a European-based provider
of business intelligence, has predicted that the mobile phone market will be a US$25 billion industry in five years. Will a small company be able to enter this market and who among current businesses will be able to survive the international competition that an industry of this size is sure to attract?

   Hanoi, Vietnam, September 23, 2009 – Co-organized by the National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (NIICS) and Frost & Sullivan, the Vietnam Telecoms Growth Conference 2009 kick-started today. Based on the theme –‘Maximizing growth opportunities in emerging markets’ – this is the first time a growthfocused conference for the Telecoms industry is being […]

The National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (NIICS) and Frost & Sullivan will be co-organising a growth conference titled Vietnam Telecoms Growth Conference 2009 from September 23-24, 2009 at the Intercontinental Hanoi Westlake hotel. The summit is endorsed by Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam (MIC). Given the low broadband penetration rates, Vietnam is certainly a lucrative market for the operators. Vietnam is poised for fast growth in the Asia Pacific region by on-going market de-regulation, sustained upgrading of the ICT infrastructure, equitisation of government-owned telecom entities, 2G coverage expansion, 3G deployments and an intial rollout of WiMAX.

Good day! Thank you very much for attending our August 09 event at Paris Hoa Le. The event was well received by both audience and industry, with over 25 people attending. Ken Leong from Macera Technology shared the update & examples of social networking services, the business model for Mobile Social Networking..

Good day! Thank you very much for attending our August 09 event at Paris Hoa Le. The event was well received by both audience and industry, with over 25 people attending.

Ken Leong from Macera Technology shared the update & examples of social networking services, the business model for Mobile Social Networking:

•  Advertisement
•  Product affiliation groups
•  Partnership
•  Micropayment/Micro-transactional
•  Subscription 

as well as the challenge & struggle of SNS:

•  Retaining audience
•  Reach out to advertisers
•  Knowing the audience
•  Identity
•  What makes you different from MySpace/Facebook?
•  Identify business model at the start  

Mostyle has demonstrate different microSNS developed by them that work with different party such as Telstra’s BigPond, Smart Sandbox, etc.

During the Q&A & networking session, audiences were sharing their thoughts and opinions about Vietnamese situations, relationship between telcos & content providers, challenges between both party.

Anyway, the presentation slides from August 09 event - Mobile Social Networking Services & Revenue Model is available…. please check the “Download ” section. Enjoy!