GSMA Announces Call For Entries for 18th Annual Global Mobile Awards

LONDON, Sept. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA today announced that the Global Mobile Awards 2013 are now open for entry. The Global Mobile Awards, which recognise excellence and innovation within the mobile communications industry, will be presented at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday 26th February 2013.

"We are pleased to open the nomination process for the 18th edition of the Global Mobile Awards," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA. "As always, we are seeking entries that represent clear advances in the mobile ecosystem and that benefit consumers and businesses. For 2013, we have introduced new awards to reflect emerging trends such as the rise of connected devices, advancements in mobile technology and the continued innovation within the mobile application market. We would like to wish all those taking part the best of luck."

The Global Mobile Awards for 2013 will include 37 awards to be presented under the following categories:

• The Connected Life Awards
• Best Mobile Services
• Social & Economic Development
• Apps of the Year
• Best Mobile Handsets & Devices
• Best Mobile Technology
• Government Leadership Awards
• Outstanding Achievement Award

To reflect the broad and constantly evolving mobile ecosystem, the GSMA has introduced several enhancements to the 2013 awards, notably the addition of the inaugural 'Connected Life Awards'. This category will focus on the convergence of mobile with key vertical sectors and recognise the best mobile products and services for automotive, education, health, mobile money, publishing and 'smart cities', with a special category for mobile-enabled consumer electronic devices.

The GSMA has augmented the 'Best Mobile Technology' category, with additional awards to include a new 'Outstanding LTE Contribution' award, as well as an 'Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology' award, the winner of which will be selected by a worldwide panel of CTOs from entries across the technology category.

The 'Apps of the Year' category will include awards such as 'Best Application using Network APIs' and 'Most Innovative Mobile App', as well as the 'Smartphone Application Challenge', which will test entries against the GSMA Smarter Apps for Smarter Phones guidelines for creating more efficient mobile applications, among other criteria. These awards are open to nominations, while other awards within the 'Apps of the Year' category will be selected based on statistical evidence of global downloads and usage and judges' nominations.

"One of the most exciting and rapidly growing areas in mobile is mobile applications," commented O'Hara. "A key factor judges will be examining in this category is network friendliness - are mobile applications optimised to meet the requirements of mobile networks, are they designed to be reliable and responsive and will they preserve battery life on users' handsets? By making this part of the awards criteria, we hope to further shine a light on these important issues and identify those applications and developers who are proactively addressing them."

The GSMA is also expanding the Government Leadership Awards, which recognise governments for their innovation and leadership in use of mobile technologies in the public sector. The Government Leadership Awards now comprise four awards, including special awards for 'Spectrum for Mobile Broadband', 'Best Government Policy for Mobile Development' and the 'Best m-Government Initiative'.

In addition, the Global Mobile Awards will celebrate the very best and most promising 'Mobile Handsets and Devices' for 2013, with four dedicated awards open to nominations from judges, and a fifth award for the 'Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet on show at Mobile World Congress 2013', which will be researched and selected by a panel of judges at the event.

The awards will be judged by a panel of independent experts, analysts, journalists, academics and, in some cases, mobile operator representatives and the GSMA will announce the shortlist of nominations for each category late January 2013. 

The Global Mobile Awards 2013 can be entered online at www.globalmobileawards.com   and nominations close on Friday 30th November 2012. This year, the submission of video to support entries is welcomed and encouraged by the awards judges. Entries are open to companies across the entire mobile ecosystem and a full list of categories, deadlines and award criteria can also be found on the Global Mobile Awards website.

For further information on the Global Mobile Awards 2013 or if you would like to become a sponsor, please contact the GSMA at awards@globalmobileawards.com.

The Mobile World Congress 2013 will be held 25th - 28th February at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. For more information, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com.

About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators with more than 230 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations in industry sectors such as financial services, healthcare, media, transport and utilities. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo. 

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com or Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com