It is the second annual contest run by Ericsson in partnership with Sony Ericsson. 158 teams submitted entries, which had to be an Android-based application (web or native) which used at least one Ericsson Labs API and touched on the theme "Connected Things."
At an event held in Stockholm but also live-cast on the web at www.ericssonapplicationawards.com, four finalists from Italy, China, Sweden and the United Kingdom showed their apps while jury members deliberated before declaring one winner in the student category and one in the company category.
Jonas Wilhelmsson from Ericsson and the jury chairman, said the entries were all very high quality and it was “tough to put anyone in second place.” He said the winners’ edge was that they had thought through marketing and future plans better than the other competitors.
The student category prize and 15-thousand Euro check went to Italian team JustBit, with “What’s in My Kitchen.” The four students Daniele Albanese, Simone Notargiacomo, Francesco Pace, and Lorenzo Tavernese were actually last year’s runners up. Team spokesman Daniele Albanese said: “Our application keeps you from arriving home to an empty fridge or with a fridge full of product you don’t need or that have expired. Of course there are also fun features like recipe sharing, finding the closest market, and so on.”
The application uses RFID technology and wireless connectivity on an Android operating system.
“This year we won, finally and we are really, really happy,” added Albanese.
Start-up entrepreneurs Phil Woodward and Jos Shepherd from the United Kingdom are the winners in the company category. Their team HipSnip developed a personal shopping application to get product advice and recommendations. Phil Woodward said: “I think the shopping and social overlay are an exciting combination, plus we’re thinking from day one about how to make money.
We’re a young company, and to say to people we meet that we’ve won an Ericsson award is really important,” said Woodward. The partners plan to hire new employees with the prize money.
Jan Färjh, head of Ericsson Research and host of the awards, said the event is important “as this is where we discover and support entrepreneurs, and share ideas in the application developers’ world. We can promote new business ideas in the Networked Society.” The 2012 contest will soon be announced, as soon as a theme is decided.
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