Nokia celebrates mobile app innovation

Innovation road sign

Nokia has revealed the winners of its competition to find the most innovative mobile developers in the UK.

Events database woZZon, which provides access to a beefy database of 60,000 geo-coded venues and 90,000 unique events, took top prize, while other winners included Little Spender from Ribot, Live Talkback and Virtual Scorer.

As a result of the win, the woZZon app will be published on Nokia's Ovi store, win 20,000 in cash and get paid travel to Nokia's Spring 2010 developer event.

"We were looking for bold ideas from talented developers who could demonstrate a real understanding of what UK consumers want from mobile content. The woZZon application stood out for its innovative geo-coded venues which ties to Ovi Maps, and the sheer volume of data accessible via the app. The App automatically charts your GPS position and searches for your chosen subject, so whether you are after a restaurant, cinema, Salsa club or gig you can find it via woZZon," said Rupert Englander, UK head of services at Nokia, in a statement.

"Creating fresh ideas for applications is key in the fast-paced mobile content market and UK developers play a major role in driving forward innovation. This competition was not just about nurturing talent but also offering the UK developer community access to an unrivalled network of consumers through our Ovi Store channel."

Sarah Longhurst, product co-ordinator at woZZon Mobile Applications, added: "The woZZon team are delighted to be chosen as Nokia's 2009 Calling All Innovators UK Grand Prize winner. woZZon not only tells you about large events such as festivals, it has a strong focus on really local events, from your local village hall fete to your nearest pub quiz. Integrating woZZon with Ovi Maps is pivotal in providing users a simple and useful tool to discover what's on around them."

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.