NAVTEQ, announced at an award ceremony that T+1 Solutions is the Grand Prize
winner of The Americas edition of the 2009 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge.
T+1 Solutions won in the category of Enterprise which is one of five
categories: Content, Enterprise, Entertainment & Leisure,
Navigation and Social Networking.
The winning application, Taxi4me, is a mobile taxi ordering service
that helps consumers anywhere in the world connect with trusted taxi
companies. The desired time and destination is sent from a user's
mobile phone to a taxi brokering server. Local taxi companies then
submit competitive bids and proposed routes back to the consumer.
The three runners-up also selected by the judging panel include:
- DialPlus Inc. (Social Networking): DialPlus enhances the
standard phone call experience by automatically and simultaneously
providing dynamic, contextually relevant visual information about the
called or calling party before, during and after the call is over. - Creativity Software (Entertainment & Leisure): Rough Guides Mobile Travel Guide is a location aware city guide with user-generated content and social networking features.
- Colombia Games (Social Networking): ToGetThere allows people to share car rides and create a trustful community that helps to save the earth by traveling together.
The winner is receiving in total over $557,500 in cash, tools and
data licenses, and handsets from NAVTEQ and sponsors, and each
runner-up is receiving over $417,500 in total prizes.
Now in its sixth year, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is the
premier event in the location-based services (LBS) industry, inviting
application developers to build innovative applications for mobile
devices using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ(R) maps. It is
a world-wide competition conducted by NAVTEQ Network for Developers(TM)
(NN4D), NAVTEQ's global community and support program for LBS
developers and business partners.
Fourteen companies advanced to the final judging in The Americas
region and the finalists represented a broad spectrum of wireless
applications. These were selected based on commercial feasibility,
functionality, ease of use and design.
"With a record number of registrations in The Americas region, this
year marked our most competitive contest yet, making the achievement of
this group of award winners all the more remarkable," commented Jeff
Mize, executive vice president, Global Sales, NAVTEQ. "We congratulate
the Grand Prize Winner and three runners-up on their outstanding
solutions and thank our judges and sponsors for their commitment in
driving excellence and innovation in the LBS space."
The distinguished panel of judges included executives from AT&T,
Best Buy Mobile, Chrysler, deCarta, Intel, IPG Emerging Media Lab,
MetroPCS, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telefonica, Verizon and Yahoo!.
"deCarta is proud to sponsor the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge again
this year. Over the years this event has grown to become an industry
bellwether for discovering not only new applications, but the trends of
the mobile services and the emerging technologies that make these
applications possible. The LBS Challenge has a track record of
producing very successful winners - you could say it has become the
'Oscars' of LBS applications," says Thomas Owen, Vice President,
Wireless Business Development, deCarta. "I strongly recommend to the
developers I work with to get involved in the LBS Challenge as this
event creates a fantastic opportunity to meet other developers and see
the other applications coming to market, some of whom may be potential
collaboration opportunities."
"Once again NAVTEQ has managed to surface some of the best LBS
talent in North America through its Global LBS Challenge. We always
look forward to these annual events, because they help Nokia stay on
the pulse of the latest LBS trends while at the same time giving us the
chance to evaluate new, innovative applications and determine which
ones we could successfully take to market through Nokia's distribution
channels," said Marc Kleinmaier, Business Development Manager, LBS,
Nokia. "The LBS Challenge is an excellent breeding ground for sourcing
new applications and has served Nokia well for a number of years."
"As part of the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge, the Sony Ericsson
Developer World team has been privileged to be involved in the judging
of exciting, new and innovative location based applications. The
breadth of applications has been impressive in all events so far," says
Vildan Hasanbegovic, Global Tools Product Manager, Sony Ericsson. ""We
truly look forward to seeing more creative and ground breaking
applications in the future from innovative developers of The Americas
region."