Aussie Android developers: Ericsson wants you!

Stuart Corner
Monday, 05 September 2011 09:09

Business IT - Technology

Ericsson has launched its 2012 Ericsson Application Awards competition for Android application developers, with a particular call for Australian & New Zealand entrants - conspicuous by their absence in prior years.

The competition carries a total of EUR30,000 in prize money in each of two categories: one for student entrants and one for small and medium enterprises (under 100 employees). This year's competition is based on the theme "Apps for the Networked Society", an Ericsson vision incorporating a combination of mobility, broadband, the cloud, applications and services for an empowered society.

Ericsson Australia's communications manager, Selina O'Connor, said: "Australia is one of the countries Ericsson draws end-users from to participate in the evaluation process along with China, UK and the US. For [the 2010 and 2011 competitions] approximately 250 Australian end-users evaluated the semi-finalist teams. However [there were] no entrants from Australia or New Zealand in [2010 and 2011] so now is a great time to show the others some Australian creativity and ingenuity."

Entrants need to develop an application based on the Android platform (web or native) that addresses the theme of the competition and makes use of at least one Ericsson Labs API. These cover applications such as mobile location and text to-speech. For the main competition, teams have to be registered by February 1 2012 and the final deadline for all entries is February 28. The competition also has two optional preliminary mini-challenges, in September-October and November-December.

Tommy Arngren, project manager for the Ericsson Application Awards, said the awards gave entrants exposure, recognition and contacts within the telecom industry. "We are looking for innovations from a variety of environments, places and situations - connecting people, things and places in order to empower people and society."

There are several prizes in each category: first place, EUR15,000 and phones from Sony Ericsson; Second place, EUR10,000 and phones from Sony Ericsson; third place, EUR5000; fourth and fifth place, honorary diplomas.

This is the third consecutive year for the awards. The 2010 winner was from Ireland with the app CallerProfile and the 2011 winner was HipSnip from the UK (company category) and JustBit from Italy (Student). The HipSnip application is a social eCommerce type of application.

Instructions on how to install the Ericsson Labs Android SDK and set up the development environment are available here along with details of how to apply.