Winners Of The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge

18 February 2009, 9:13am

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona - February 18th, 2009 - NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions (LBS) and vehicle navigation, last night announced at an award ceremony that skobbler GmbH, Germany is the grand prize-winner of the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) edition of the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge 2009. skobbler won in the category of Content which is one of five categories: Content, Enterprise, Entertainment & Leisure, Navigation and Social Networking.

The winning application, skobbler, is an application that allows young, urban consumers to share information, personal comments and recommendations on places and activities around a city as well as useful tips on mobile devices. The mobile application combines, for example, local search of NAVTEQ dynamic content, such as events or movies, with sponsored advertising links and GPS navigation to the advertised place.

The three runners-up also selected by the judging panel include:

* PH Informatica SA, Portugal: (Content Category) City Guide is a dynamic LBS content guide that allows access to information in real time related to a user's unique profile. Once subscribed, the system becomes a personal guide by giving automatic information based on user interest whilst navigating by car, foot or public transportation

* Carbon Hero Ltd, UK: (Enterprise Category) Carbon Diem is the first Carbon computer by the National Science Museum of London. An application that uses GPS technology to track a person's carbon footprint based on his/her transportation choices, it tracks your travel and informs you as to how much energy you could save while using different means of transport (walking, bus, train, car etc). It also keeps track of all the places you have visited.

* Kishonti Informatics Bt, Hungary: (Content Category) NaviGenie provides mapping information presented in a route-planning application using high quality perspective mode 2.5D and 3D views of city and street maps as well as building footprints. There are several different user-customisable view options, including bird, satellite and street-perspective views.

Now in its fourth year in the EMEA region, the Global LBS Challenge is one of the developer community's most exciting competitions and showcases. It is a solution and platform provider to both mobile network operators and LBS application developers. This year NAVTEQ and sponsoring companies are offering prizes that contribute to a global prize pool of over $5.5 million dollars US (approximately 4 million Euros) in cash, tool, data licences and handsets: the largest prize pool ever in the competition's history.

The winner is receiving over 472,000 Euros total in cash and data licences from NAVTEQ and sponsors and each runner-up will receive over 350,000 Euros total. In addition, many of the sponsors are also providing prizes.

In its sixth year in the Americas region and expanded last year to the Asia Pacific region, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is a world-wide contest known as the premier event in the location-based services (LBS) industry. It challenges application developers to innovate: building applications for mobile devices using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ maps.

Thirteen advanced to the final judging in the European region and the finalists represented a broad spectrum of wireless applications. These were selected based on commercial feasibility, functionality, ease of use and design. The final judging panel, included executives from BMW, deCarta, I-Source Gestion, Forum Nokia, Orange Partner, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Vodafone and Wind.

"We are seeing a significant shift in the way people connect and interact and the award-winning applications demonstrate this," commented Jeff Mize, executive vice president, Global Sales, NAVTEQ. "The calibre of the judges and sponsors is a reflection of the interest and excitement around location-based solutions and we thank them for their commitment and support in providing this forum where key industry players collaborate with application developers."

As a forerunner in the industry for nurturing new developer talent, the Global LBS Challenge creates an outlet for the developer community to gain industry access and exposure and its success is reflected in the increasing presence of mobile location and navigation services. Three of the global sponsors judging commented:

"In the past twelve months, location and maps have become part of the fabric of the mobile Internet, opening up many new opportunities for developers to use their creativity in new and useful applications. That creativity has clearly been demonstrated here in the EMEA Global LBS Challenge at the Mobile World Congress. deCarta is proud to join with NAVTEQ in supporting this exciting developer community," said Marc Prioleau, VP Marketing & Business Development, deCarta Inc.

"The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge surfaces some of the best talent in LBS application development, and by judging the events we can evaluate the technical innovation and commercial feasibility of the new applications. The Global LBS Challenge is an important source of new LBS content for Nokia," said Jure Sustersic, Business Development Manager, Forum Nokia.

"I was impressed to see the growing diversity of location-based services. Many would complement each other. The Global LBS Challenge judging and networking events provide an excellent stage for facilitating technical and business development discussions between developers and go-to-market players," said Jens Greve, Head of Sony Ericsson Developer World.

NAVTEQ

Geo: International