The Grand Prize Winners and Runners-Up in each region will receive a six month license to Alembic, an advanced device database and powerful web search engine which benchmarks fully tested characteristics of more than 1,000 handsets. It allows developers to identify which brands and models of mobile phones their application could potentially work on before prototyping or launching their mobile projects.
Each Grand Prize Winner for the three regions will also receive a 12 month license to Celsius, an industry leading mobile application development and porting suite, allowing developers from one single Java(TM) ME source code to automatically port (adapt) different optimized versions of their application to the widest range of existing and upcoming compatible Java enabled handsets.
"We are excited to become sponsors for the first time at this year's Global LBS Challenge. Developers are incorporating location enabled services in their mobile offering at an accelerating pace," says Eric Lemarechal, Co- Founder and COO of Mobile Distillery. "This initiative will help some of the world's most innovative LBS providers to easily get their applications to the broadest possible handset range and accelerate their time to market."
Mobile developers face a number of challenges on their road to commercialization, including choosing between or supporting multiple operating systems, device fragmentation even on a particular platform, differences in implementation of network and technical standards and download limitations in operator networks.
"The combined Alembic and Celsius solution from Mobile Distillery not only provides a technical insight into what features and performances are available on thousands of handsets but also allows developers to produce multiple versions of their applications in just a few clicks, making sure they will always take advantage of each handset at its best by employing both handset- unique and standard mobile technologies. The traditionally prohibitive barrier of porting costs and effort is largely removed," says Marc Naddell, vice president, partner and developer programs and NAVTEQ.
The Alembic online database, to which more than 40 new devices are added every month, enables developers to assess handsets and market potential. This is important information for any developer to make an educated decision on porting to mass-market devices.
Mobile Distillery's Alembic and Celsius solution is fully integrated as a plug-in and tool set in standard Integrated Development Environments (IDE's) such as NetBeans and Eclipse. This enables developers to use standard IDE's to rapidly prototype and develop their LBS applications.
The winners of the Global LBS Challenge -- EMEA region will be announced February 17, 2009 in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress. The winners for the Americas regions will be announced April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas during CTIA. The APAC winners will be announced June 17, 2009 in Singapore during CommunicAsia. For more information, please visit LBSChallenge.com.
About Mobile Distillery
A specialist in mobile technologies with in-depth handset knowledge, Mobile Distillery was founded in 2005 to solve the platform and handset fragmentation issue that developers face when developing mobile content and services. Its software solutions reduce porting cycles by up to 80%, ensure cost savings, and accelerate time-to-market of Java mobile applications while ensuring their easy updates to new devices in European, North-American and Asian markets. Mobile Distillery's Testing Services ensure quality mobile applications and products with professional QA Testing for mobile applications, NFC applications, or SIM card applications. Mobile Distillery's customers include developers, publishers and system integrators -- across the mobile application ecosystem -- web specialists, mobile game publishers, mobile marketing agencies and IT service companies. Mobile Distillery has offices in Paris, Marseilles and Singapore. For more information please visit: http://www.mobile-distillery.com. Mobile Distillery's solutions and services will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2009 in Hall 2, Stand 2F49.
About the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge
First launched in 2003, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is focused on driving the development and visibility of innovative navigation solutions for wireless devices. From wireless business applications to sports, travel and security, integrating the accuracy and richness of NAVTEQ digital map data facilitates the timely evolution of the next wave of LBS. Over 30% of past semifinalists have gone on to receive venture capital funding or launch commercially-distributed applications. Complete development resources, information and technical support for creating LBS and Navigation solutions using NAVTEQ products and services is available at http://www.LBSChallenge.com.
About NAVTEQ Network for Developers
NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) is a dynamic online web portal and community that provides developers and business partners with the technical and business support needed to build, showcase and launch the most innovative location-enabled solutions. Connect with the people, tools and resources you need to grow your business by visiting http://www.NN4D.com.
About NAVTEQ
NAVTEQ is a leading provider of comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. NAVTEQ creates the digital maps and map content that power navigation and location-based services solutions around the world. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has more than 4,000 employees located in 194 offices and in 43 countries.
NAVTEQ, and NAVTEQ Network for Developers and Global LBS Challenge are trademarks of NAVTEQ in the U.S. and other countries. All rights reserved.
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