Global Mobile Awards 2008 - Winners:
The winners for 2008 are... (view
the photos)
Best Mobile Handset
or Device
SonyEricsson: W910
Walkman Phone
3UK: 3 Skypephone
- Highly Commended
Best Broadcast Commercial
Safaricom: M-PESA
'Send Money Home' campaign
Best Mobile Advertising
Crossmedia Avenue: AMF
Pension - the MMS campaign
Best Use of Mobile
for Social & Economic Development
Grameenphone: CellBazaar
Best Network Quality
Initiative
RAD Data Communications: LA-130
Cell Gateway - Cost-Effective HSPA Backhaul
Best Service Delivery
Platform
Aepona: Aepona
Telecom Web Services Platform
Best Billing and
Customer Solution
Bharti Airtel: mChek
on Airtel - Mobile Payments Service
Best Roaming Product
or Service
Syniverse Technologies:
Syniverse Datanet
Mobile Innovation Award
Gesturetek
Best Mobile Game
Cellufun
: Call of the Pharaoh
Call of the Pharaoh is
modelled after viral pyramid schemes, so the
game was designed using a pyramid scheme algorithm
and, in an effort to follow the pattern, was
then made about being a pharaoh and building
a pyramid. By requiring recruitment and cooperation,
the game drives viral exposure and traffic. Call
of the Pharaoh is compelling and innovative
because it engages the entire community of Cellufun
users and requires participation and communication
from all parties in order for any one gamer to
advance to a next level. The community aspect
and pyramid scheme design of this game help it
stand out from the rest."
Judges' comments: "One of
two outstanding entries that the judges just
couldn't split, so a joint winner. Call of the
Pharaoh (from Cellufun) introduces social networking
to games, you can't win this all on your own,
you need to call in your buddies. Beware, don't
start this just before bedtime or you will spend
all night on it!"
Glu Mobile
: My Hangman
My Hangman takes traditional
hangman to all new level with exciting new twists.
The much loved word game makes the jump to mobile
complete with a suite of additions and customisable
features for a personal hangman challenge. My
Hangman includes over 1,000 word puzzles based
on popular culture words and phrases; movies,
pop music, sport - plus bonus mini-games between
puzzles for extra power ups. It's the ideal game
for fun, casual game play. It's compelling because
it is a personalised mobile gaming experience.
The player can customise their game using the
phone's camera to insert a friend (or enemy's)
face in the game as you try to crack the Hangman
word puzzles.
Judges' comments: "One of
two outstanding entries that the judges just
couldn't split, so a joint winner. My Hangman
takes a traditional game we've all played as
children, added some clever twists, and brought
into the 21st century by making it highly personalised
and adding your own photos to the game is really
good fun too."
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Best Mobile Music Service
Omnifone
: MusicStation
Omnifone is Europe's
leading direct-to-mobile unlimited music download
service provider. Partners include Vodafone,
Telenor, 3 Hong Kong and Vodacom, all of whom
have rolled out Omnifone's revolutionary subscription
based mobile music service MusicStation, providing
unlimited downloads direct to a wide range
of industry standard music enabled handsets
for a small weekly fee or bundled into price
plans. Omnifone has 30 Mobile Network Operators
engaged as MusicStation partners across Europe,
Asia Pacific and Africa and has international
licence agreements with all four major labels
and many independents. For further information
please visit;
www.omnifone.com.
Judges' comments: "A truly
generic music station for just about every
music enabled mobile phone on the market. Heaven
sent for the mobile music lover."
Best Mobile Video Service
mywaves
: mywaves
mywaves is the fastest-growing
mobile video destination for consumers, attracting
over 4.5 million unique visitors monthly to its
free mobile video service. Consumers can browse
through nearly 400,000 channels of premium, private
and user-generated videos and have their favorites
automatically updated and delivered to their
phones. Most users tune in to watch mywaves video
weekly with average viewing times of 24 minutes
per session. The service works globally across
all 3G, EDGE, BREW and EV-DO carriers as well
as most video-capable mobile phones, including
Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian and RIM based phones.
mywaves is led by a team from Yahoo!, Napster,
Danger, Palm and TiVo.
Judges' comments: "Easy
to use, made-for-mobile video service that's
fun, free and fantastic. Sure fire winner amongst
the mobile video fans."
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Best Mobile Social Networking Service
BuzzCity
: myGamma.com
myGamma.com,
by BuzzCity, is a mobile internet community,
where people worldwide exchange ideas and express
themselves as a way of keeping in touch with
friends or making new ones. Registration is
free and members interact via their personal
profiles, blogs, discussion groups and many
other community features. These features are
crafted to appeal to our basic need for friendship
and our sense of vanity. Consequently, primary
activities include the exchange of testimonials,
virtual gifts and voting of member photos.
Members generally have limited or no access
to computers and have made mobiles their primary
access to the Internet.
Judges' comments: "Let
the people speak. Rapidly growing social network
site spanning borders, cultures and languages.
The world just got a lot smaller - and smarter."
Best Mobile Infotainment Portal for News or Entertainment
Yahoo! Connected
Life : Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0
With Yahoo! Go for Mobile
2.0, the online world now lives on a user's phone.
It is an all-in-one client application that redefines
the mobile Internet experience for consumers' handsets
through a unique product design, the ability
to personalise with content from the entire Internet
and a reinvention of mobile search via Yahoo!
oneSearch. The unique carousel design of Yahoo!
Go 2.0 makes it simple for consumers to navigate
the selection of Yahoo! Go widgets for e-mail,
local information and maps, news, sports, finance,
entertainment, weather, photo sharing and search.
The service includes Yahoo! oneSearchT, an innovative
new mobile search service designed to give consumers
what they want on their mobile phone - instant
answers.
Judges' comments: "What
WEB 2.0 really needs is to go mobile and now
it has thanks to Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2. Crammed
full of with every widget you ever needed and
some you didn't know you did - until now!"
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Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service
Microsoft
: Windows Mobile 6
Microsoft is
connecting people to the information that matters
most to them, anywhere, anytime. Windows Mobile
6 makes it easier for businesses to go mobile
with increased integration with existing Microsoft
technology, new mobile security features and
added functionality to help employees collaborate
while on the go.
Windows Mobile 6 advances rich mobile experiences
for people outside of work through integration
with Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger,
Live Search and Windows Live Spaces. Windows
Mobile 6 was the first mobile device platform
to offer HTML e-mail support allowing people
to receive, view and compose e-mail in HTML
format.
Judges' comments: "A leading
platform for business owing to the ease of
integration with Microsoft Exchange infrastructure.
For the SMB market in particular, Windows Mobile
6 is an attractive proposition."
Best Mobile Messaging Service
Seven :
System Seven 7.0
System SEVEN 7.0 is the
culmination of years of experience and research
to make carrier grade mobile email accessible
to everyone. SEVEN 7.0 is the most flexible mobile
email solution on the market today, available
on more than 115 carriers worldwide and 240 mobile
phones worldwide. SEVEN supports all major device
platforms including: J2ME, BREW, Symbian, Palm
and Microsoft Windows Mobile devices, and provides
instant push email from work and consumer accounts
including Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, AOL,
Google, Hotmail, Windows Live and Yahoo! among
others. SEVEN's simplicity, widespread compatibility
and reliability have made it a favourite among
users."
Judges' comments: "If you
want e-mail on your phone and you want to keep
the phone of your choice, System Seven 7 is what
you've been waiting for."
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Best Mobile Handset or Device
SonyEricsson
: W910 Walkman Phone
The W910 Walkman
phone is designed for entertainment; whether
music, 3D games, video, or high-speed Web access,
and geared to let you choose your music, your
way. SensMeT enables you to search your collection
and create play lists based on tempo and style
rather than on artist or album. Shake control
shuffles your play list. PlayNowT V4.0 lets
you preview or pre-listen to a variety of media
content and then buy it over-the-air if you
wish. TrackIDT - in collaboration with GracenoteŽ will
identify a music track and show you the track
name, artist and album, all for free - data
charges may apply. The Sony Ericsson W910 WalkmanŽ phone
is single-band UMTS/HSDPA, quad-band EDGE phone.
Judges' comments: "The
Sony Ericsson W910 is a superb all-rounder.
A compelling, easy to use design that has captured
the imagination of consumers around the world
in 2007."
3UK :
3 Skypephone
The 3 Skypephone
mobile is a small, compact handset with Skype
functionality built in - the first of its kind
in the world. Skype contacts and calls are
completely integrated into the address book
and call logs, adding presence awareness to
the consumer's phonebook. The Skype functionality
includes making and receiving Skype calls,
Skype caller ID and Skype chat. The 3 Skypephone
includes a 2 megapixel camera, MP3 player and
internet browser and brings one of the internet's
most powerful applications to the mobile world
using a mixture of IP and 3G voice technology.
The handset offers one button access to a host
of key internet services, instant messaging,
search, Youtube and Facebook.
Judges' comments: "The
Skypephone is an innovative partnership between
Hutchison 3 and Skype. In addition to the headline
Skype service, the phone offers extremely good
value for money with a wide range of features
not previously seen at this price point."
Best Broadcast Commercial
Safaricom
: M-PESA 'Send Money Home' campaign
M-PESA is a new Safaricom
service launched in March 2007, allowing Kenyans
to transfer money fast, safely & affordably using
the mobile phone. The 'Send Money Home' campaign
was designed to demonstrate to customers how
to use M-PESA and drive registrations of 98,000
customers through 800 retail outlets in 8 months.
The commercial had to give this information in
an engaging manner while reassuring customers
of the simplicity and accessibility of the service.
In 8 months over 1,000,000 customers registered
for M-PESA and the Agent network grew to 1300
outlets as a result of customer demand generated
through the campaign.
Judges' comments: "This
shows the importance of mobile data services
for more than just voice services or content
download, fulfilling a vital social function.
A simple campaign that has worked extremely effectively
for its target audience."
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Best Mobile Advertising
Crossmedia
Avenue : AMF Pension - the MMS campaign
Crossmedia Avenue,
a Swedish mobile marketing and mobile entertainment
company, produced the mobile element in a national
campaign for the market leading Swedish insurance
company AMF Pension. The campaign resulted
in a huge success with the enormous response
of 262 000 via the mobile and 323 000 with
the web interface included (9M inhabitants
of Sweden). The campaign, "Meet yourself in
the future", marketed with TV spots and billboards,
gave the audience the opportunity to experience
themselves as 70-year olds by sending in their
portrait image. In the return MMS message their
face would be aged into a 70 year-old before
their eyes. Crossmedia Avenue produced the
ageing application and mobile solution.
Judges' comments: "Creative
and original use of morphing and MMS with a
clear marketing goal in mind. This works in
support of the AMF Pension message in a way
that only a mobile campaign could. Staggering
mobile response rate to a TV campaign. Associating
it with similar age personalities reinforces
acceptability of product."
Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development
Grameenphone
: CellBazaar
Grameenphone CellBazaar
is a user-generated virtual marketplace, accessible
via mobile phone or PC to nearly 17 million people
in Bangladesh. In developing countries, limited
communications hinder commerce and uninformed
farmers and traders have little bargaining power
with exploitative middlemen. Using CellBazaar
(
www.cellbazaar.com),
buyers and sellers trade basic goods from their
mobiles, bringing the benefits of information
exchange and one-to-many trading to a previously
unwired rural population. Users post or search
an item, spending less than US$.02, either by
SMS or WAP or WEB, depending on their preferences.
While common telephony establishes one-to-one
communication, CellBazaar links many-to-many
using the same basic mobile infrastructures.
Judges' comments: "Great
initiative - full marks for self-sustainability.
This grass root level initiative is not only
for operators to make money but for rural folks
to sell and trade their goods and increased price
transparency and help for the illiterate is also
available. It has clear environmental benefits
through reduced travel."
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Best Network Quality Initiative
RAD Data
Communications : LA-130 Cell Gateway - Cost-Effective
HSPA Backhaul
The LA-130 is
the market's first gateway that aggregates
2G, 3G and HSDPA traffic from cell sites and
efficiently transports it over cost-effective
DSL infrastructure. The cellular revolution
has meant that an HSDPA user can use the same
capacity as over 1,000 2G GSM subscribers so
typical backhaul technology cannot economically
sustain anything more than minor HSDPA usage.
By employing RAD's cell-site gateways, mobile
operators such as T-Mobile and eMobile are
already cost-effectively sustaining the bandwidth
provided by HSDPA without needing to throttle-back
data rates.
Judges' comments: "Fixing
the black hole in backhaul, the LA-130 also
clears up mobile operators' bunged-up passages
and allows mobile surfers to ride the big waves."
Best Service Delivery Platform
Aepona :
Aepona Telecom Web Services Platform
Aepona's Telecom Web Services
Platform empowers Telco's to fully participate
in the new, collaborative world of Web 2.0 and
Enterprise 2.0 services, rather than being relegated
to the role of dumb bit pipe for "over the top" services
from Webco's, device/portal vendors and Enterprise
application providers.
Aepona's solution allows Telco's to securely
publish their network capabilities (communications,
information, intelligence) to the outside world
as standards-based Web Services. This enables
thousands of 3rd parties to telecom-enable both
web-based consumer services and enterprise applications,
providing Telco's with new revenue sources from
existing assets as well as many new routes to
market.
Judges' comments: "At last
application developers can go mobile without
the nightmares. The Aepona Web Services Platform
joins together developers and Telcos in one easy
move."
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Best Billing and Customer Care Solution
Bharti
Airtel : mChek on Airtel - Mobile Payments
Service
Instantaneous
Anytime Anywhere Convenience of Mobile Bill
Payments & Prepaid Recharge - from the convenience
of ANY mobile phone (even a ultra low cost
handset can be used) or ANY web page (see example
on www.mchek.com).This patent-pending solution
allows customers to register credit cards,
debit cards or bank accounts and link them
to their mobile phone with a user-created 6-digit
PIN. Users can pay their post-paid bills, prepaid
recharge, or pay on behalf of others by sending
a simple SMS and entering their PIN over a
USSD session. This is a first of its kind service
in the world.
Judges' comments: "For
all those who thought mobile commerce was a
pipe dream, mChek on Airtel, has just shown
the way to do it. The cashless society is here
and it's gone mobile."
Best Roaming Product or Service
Syniverse
Technologies : Syniverse Datanet
Syniverse DataNet is the
next generation of roaming anti-fraud protection
for network operators and, by extension, their
subscribers. Developed to exceed the GSMA's Near
Real Time Roaming Data Exchange (NRTRDE) specifications,
DataNet dramatically reduces the time taken by
the outmoded High Usage Record (HUR) for home
and visited operators to exchange roaming data
records, making fraud easier to detect and resolve.
NRTRDE is expected to reduce the incidence of
roaming fraud by up to 90%. Since fraud directly
impacts profitability, Syniverse DataNet improves
service levels for operators by reducing their
exposure to potential losses. Syniverse, who
played a leading role in the development of the
GSMA's NRTRDE standards, launched DataNet in
June 2007 and already has more than 50 contracts
with operators worldwide.
Judges' comments: "A breakthrough
in roaming data exchange for the back-office
which should also revolutionise the roaming experience
for the user."
The GSM Association Chairman's Award
Sunil
Bharti Mittal, Founder, Chairman & Group
CEO Bharti Enterprise
The GSMA Chairman's
Award, the association's highest annual honour,
is this year presented to Sunil Bharti Mittal,
entrepreneur, founder, Chairman and Group CEO
of Bharti Enterprises. This prestigious honour,
presented at the discretion of the GSMA Chairman,
seeks to recognise an outstanding personal
or company contribution to the growth and development
of mobile communications around the world.
It reflects Sunil's remarkable dedication,
personal passion and leadership toward the
goal of connecting people via communication
across the broad spectrum of Indian society.
In doing so, he has led a business revolution
which has seen Bharti-Airtel innovate in unique
ways and reinvent its business model in order
to sustainably serve and connect the lowest
income strata of Indian society. His brave
and ambitious strategies have, and will continue
to resonate across the industry and business
community globally, in what will become a benchmark
for many emerging markets around the globe.
Sunil Mittal's other passion, is one which
is closest to his heart - education. In a country,
where 300 million people do not have access
to education, Sunil Mittal has started a programme
aimed at delivering high quality primary education
to poorest of children by setting up hundreds
of schools in the farthest villages of India.
Sunil started his career at the age of 18 after
graduating from Punjab University in India
and founded Bharti, with a modest capital,
in 1976. Today, at 50 he heads a successful
enterprise, among the top 5 in India, with
a market capitalization of over US$ 35 billion
employing over 30,000 people.
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