Application submission has concluded with close to 150 applications from over 18 Arab countries and few non-Arab countries

Doha - December 20th, 2010 -  The QU Wireless Innovations Center (QUWIC) announced the conclusion of the applications submission phase of its first annual Mobile Application Development Contest. About 150 applicants from 18 Arab countries and few non-Arab countries have submitted their work to participate in the first of its kind regional mobile application development contest.

The contest which was launched earlier in October, covers multiple phone platforms and  targets the following application areas of interest: healthcare, media, education, environment, sports and financial services. The contest comes as an initiative of QUWIC with the support of co-sponsors, the Qtel Group and Al Jazeera Network.

Among the top countries of applicants are: Egypt with 25%, Tunisia with 15%, Morocco with 9%, Saudi Arabia with 8% and Qatar with 6% of the total applications submitted.

The contest  targeted Arab developers of mobile applications for multiple platforms. The submitions came to include the following platforms: iPhone with 48%, Android with 31%, Blackberry with 10% and other platforms with 11% of the total submitted applications.

Now that the submission phase has successfully ended, a team of experts from QUWIC started the screening phase to ensure eligibility and conformance with the Contest terms and conditions. Following the initial screening of applications, comes the Filtering Phase. During this phase, all accepted applications will be evaluated according to specific criteria including relevance to the Arab world, innovation, implementation feasibility, and status of development. The top 5-8 applications will be selected in each platform category. ("Short-Listed Applications") for further evaluation. Owners of short-listed applications will be notified.

"We have designed the contest to encourage greater grass-root regional involvement in mobile application development, and to provide a platform for MENA mobile developers to demonstrate their creativity and skills" Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director, QUWIC said. " the number of applications and the regional extent of the applicants come to prove our vision. We are so excited about the talents and level of innovation we have seen so far" he added.

Since its inception in 2009, QUWIC has identified the emerging field of mobile applications development as a key strategic area of innovations, with a clear focus on developing Arabic language applications which deliver locally and regionally relevant content.

This contest supports the wider objective of QUWIC to position Qatar as a regional hub for research and development (R&D) in telecom and wireless applications and services. It also aims to discover and encourage young talent from the MENA region to play an active role in this important and emerging space.

All applications will be evaluated according to certain criteria and the winning applications will be awarded valuable prizes. Most importantly, QUWIC will explore opportunities and provide technical and business support for commercial development and market deployment of the winning applications through different channels and in collaboration with its partners.

Health care applications came at the top of the submittals with 36 applications, followed by 34 media applications and 19 in the area of education. Sports applications came next with a total of 15 submittals, whereas the rest of the submittals were in the areas of environment, financial services and other areas.

Following the thorough evaluation of the applications, an award ceremony will take place towards the end of January 2011 or beginning of February, where the top 6-9 finalists will be invited to visit Qatar to appear in front of a judging panel to identify first and second place winners for each of the platforms and to select the overall contest winner.

QUWIC is already active in developing Mobile Applications that utilize emerging wireless technologies and products to create regionally relevant applications in a number of key areas of interest to the Arab World.

"The reaction to the contest is an evidence of the importance of this vital emerging sector in the Arab region, and the need for institutional support and investment in order to build a mobile applications development industry that contributes to the well being of our communities. This contest is a first step and, in collaboration with our strategic partners, we are committed to establishing a sustainable innovation platform for this emerging sector." concluded Dr. Abu-Dayya.

-Ends-

About QUWIC
QUWIC is an applied research and development center founded in Qatar by Qatar University in Collaboration with and at the Qatar Science &Technology Park to leverage the use of emerging wireless technologies in creating solutions and smart applications for use in a number of markets including Transportation, Utilities, Healthcare, and Environment.

QUWIC was founded with the objective of filling the existing gap in the region for institutions focusing on applied research and solutions delivery.

QUWIC has strategic objectives in the areas of local capacity building, innovation leadership, and in becoming a virtual R&D center for local and regional partners.

For further information, please contact:
Aziz Louksah  
+974 55736001 
aziz@tugboatbranding.net
info@quwic.com

© Press Release 2010