Flirtomatic, Waze and Aloqa were among the winners in the Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards 2009, which were announced yesterday evening in San Fransisco. The awards ceremony attracted more than 200 of the worlds leading mobile developers, entrepreneurs, venture capital professionals and Investors.
The winners were:
- Overall iPhone category winner: Waze
- Overall Mobile web category winner: Flirtomatic
- Overall Apps category winner: Aloqa
- Microsoft Phone category winner: SPB TV
- Motorola Android category winner: Aloqa
Smaato awarded the overall winners free travel to Barcelona and booth space at the Mobile World Congress 2010, as well as various opportunities for publicity. In addition, the winners of the Microsoft Phone Category and the Motorola Android Category will receive prizes from Microsoft and Motorola, while the overall winners, Flirtomatic, Aloqa and Waze, will be introduced to eight of the top VCs in the industry, tapping into their knowledge and networks. All 15 Finalists received deviceatlas licenses sponsored by dotMobi. As a special prize, a free booth at MDAYS 2010 was awarded to Flirtomatic and Yoose.
Were proud that our awards provide developers the recognition they deserve for their work and highlight some of the coolest content on the planet, says Smaato CEO & Co-Founder, Ragnar Kruse. Weve received entries from around the world and we are seeing really fresh ideas and great innovation in content and services. Its amazing to see the diversity and the brilliance of content in the mobile world.
With around 250 nominees and registrations from all corners of the world, judges were shown a diverse range of apps and content from a mix of cultures and ethnicities. With such a blend of backgrounds, influences and differences in demand, some fascinating trends naturally emerged from the awards process.
I follow mobile services and applications around the world and write about them regularly, says Jury member Tomi Ahonen. I was very impressed by the very high level of quality of the entrants to the Smaato awards, and in particular how many of the services have achieved considerable commercial success, wide adoption and use.
Smaato says it has seen a number of trends emerging from this years award entries, as follows:
Location, location, location
With success seen from location-based apps from Smaato Award Finalists such as Waze, Aloqa, Lucky Magazine (NearbyNow) and Yoose, the app-enthused public is demonstrating that they are curious about socializing with other people using the same app, in the same geographic region. People who use these apps are engaging with local promotions or meeting up for coffee, even saying Hi to each other as they pass in the street.
Brand building with apps
Among the thousands of apps available, many brands have stepped into the arena, extending their reach to involve the app-hungry audiences around the world. Smaato sees GAP, Lufthansa, Barclaycard (by Award Finalist Fishlabs) and more leading brand marketers worldwide, as excellent examples of how to connect with brand fans by developing useful apps that reflect a brands mission, or extend their services to ubiquitous mobile devices and Smartphones.
Profitable fun
At the heart of the more successful app developers mission is increasing attention toward how to build sustained growth and profitability with different monetization options, such as SPB TV. For added monetization, mobile developers are turning to mobile advertising solutions, such as options provided by Smaato. 
Apps are the new fashion accessory
Pop cultural media is increasingly paying attention to what apps fashionable people are downloading, and often feature interesting apps that are on-trend. At trendy bars in cosmopolitan cities, people can be seen exchanging tips about the best apps to use in daily life, or just to have fun, says Smaato. Among the most popular, it says, are Twitter applications such as Zensify and MoTweet, and urban guides like Buzzd or Geodelic Sherpa.
Beyond the app
Increasingly, mobile publishers are building social networking and other conversational features to add value either within apps or on the mobile web, like itsmy or Flirtomatic. Smaato sees examples of API platforms being widened to build a bridge that takes an app beyond being something you only use on a mobile phone, to integration with the traditional online world. In the advent of the 2010 soccer world championships, reach on the mobile web is achieved either globally by goal.com or locally by Lance! in Brazil.
