Japan's Navitime tops Navteq APAC LBS Challenge

Navteq has named Navitime the grand prize winner of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) edition of the 2009 Navteq Global LBS Challenge.

Japan's Navitime won in the category of Navigation which is one of five categories: Content, Enterprise, Entertainment & Leisure, Navigation and Social Networking.

Navitime's winning application, also called Navitime, is a point-to-point route search and navigation service that uses any major transportation method—walking, driving, trains and subway, buses, taxis and airlines—to get users to their destination.

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

??tenCube (Enterprise): WaveSecure helps users to remotely track down the geographical location of their lost phone and lock down, back-up and remotely wipe out copy of their personal data to protect their privacy.

??urban team (Entertainment): FastFoot-Challenge delivers an exciting GPS multiplayer game where, through the use of their mobile devices they can transform any park, forest, even cities into their playing field.

??Yoose/Fox Mobile Distribution (Entertainment): YLIB-J2ME Edition is a location-based global couponing application that allows users to win coupons from businesses based on their location while playing a game or using a mobile social network on their mobile phone.

The Grand Prize Winner is receiving in total over $557,500 in cash, tools and data licenses and handsets from Navteq and sponsors, and each runner-up is receiving over $417,500 in total prizes.

Now in its sixth year, the Navteq Global LBS Challenge is an event in the location-based services (LBS) industry, inviting application developers to build innovative applications for mobile devices using dynamic positioning technology and Navteq maps. It is a world-wide competition conducted by NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D), Navteq's global community and support program for LBS developers and business partners.

Asia is becoming a developer hotbed and the increased number of application submissions to the LBS Challenge is a reflection of the strong interest in LBS in APAC and Navteq's presence in the region. Over 38 percent of the applications that advanced to the final judging in APAC originated from India. The finalists represented a broad spectrum of wireless applications for phones from Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson based on Java ME and Symbian OS, among the sponsors' selected platforms for this year's competition.

"The wealth of highly-skilled developers located in the Asia-Pacific region combined with the continuing expansion of map coverage and mapping products are driving the creation of a new generation of location-based services in Asia," commented Rich Shuman, senior vice president, Asia-Pacific Sales, NAVTEQ. "It's encouraging to see the level of interest in the growing developer community for creating LBS applications and using this new digital content—in everything from practical travel tools on the go to location-based entertainment including social networking, gaming and imaging solutions coupled with location data."

The winners were selected based on commercial feasibility, functionality, ease of use and design of the applications and the finalists' ability to make an effective pitch to the individual expert judges. The distinguished panel of judges included executives from Arc Worldwide, ASUS, BDA Connect, deCarta, Garmin, HTC, IBM, ITRI, Nokia, Samsung, SingTel and Sony Ericsson.

"deCarta has been sponsoring the Navteq Global LBS Challenge since its inception six years ago. We have had the privilege to see this competition grow in size and recognition along with the interest among handset manufacturers, operators, investors and the global developer community. The LBS Challenge gives us as the leading geospatial platform provider a fantastic look at what developers are capable of," says Thomas M. Owen, VP, wireless business development, deCarta. "It's always amazing to see the breadth of applications using Navteq's industry-leading map data showcasing various location features, including the applications competing in the APAC region this year. I'm happy to see that many of them are using deCarta's extensive suite of tools for creating such cutting edge and feature rich applications."

"Location-based services are finally taking off on a broad scale in mobile. With an increased number of GPS-enabled handsets on the market, Forum Nokia wants to actively help stimulate the development of new LBS applications," says Gary Chan, developer relations manager for Forum Nokia APAC. "The annual Navteq Global LBS Challenge has helped surface many new interesting applications for Nokia handsets. I was thrilled to be a judge for the APAC region this year and evaluate some of the new applications first-hand."

"We've seen quality applications across all categories, from security and gaming, to business and travel. The breadth and creativity of the applications showcased in the Navteq Global LBS Challenge is a clear signal to everyone that LBS is a crucial part of our industry and that there is an impressive amount of innovation occurring in this area," says Hyun-Yong Park, content planning group, Samsung.

"As a first time judge of the LBS Challenge, it was really interesting to see how map data and various location content can fuel a new era of mobile applications, both location-aware and contextually relevant in time and place for the mobile user," commented James Liu, head of Sony Ericsson Developer World China. "The ability of Navteq's Global LBS Challenge to stimulate developers to get started and to serve as an arena for new talent, has been an important help to Sony Ericsson to identify interesting new applications quickly."