Looking for new projects for the mobile Internet, Vodafone extended this year to Portugal the Vodafone Mobile Clicks contest. Among the 160 projects delivered to the competition, those that make it to the final stage have already been selected, among which are five Portuguese companies.
Cardmobili, Cube, Eunoia, Live City and MobilePLUX are now competing with 15 other companies representing Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to reach the final and win prizes that amount to 150 thousand euros, in addition to the possibility of joining the network of partnerships pan-European operator.
Luís Pedro Cardoso, Responsible for Internet & Mobile Advertising Services at Vodafone Portugal, confirmed to TeK that in this contest «Portugal has largely exceeded its ‘share’ of representativeness in terms of the population of these four countries». Without wishing to detail how many Portuguese projects were submitted, this official says that, since the contest took place in August, he considers that the participation of start-ups in the contest was quite reasonable.
«The quality of the proposals presented was overall very satisfactory, with some even exceeding Vodafone’s expectations for demonstrating uses of the mobile phone with a high degree of innovation compared to what already exists today», underlines Luís Pedro Cardoso.
For Portugal the experience is positive, since in the debut in this contest, the «technological community in Portugal gave us an unmistakable sign that we made the right decision to participate in this initiative and that we must continue to evaluate our participation in future editions».
Among the projects delivered, the covered areas cover various topics, applications from location to mobile bio-technology services (biofeedback), including project management, personal planning, communication with people with special needs, games, social networks, or using the cell phone. to save points and loyalty cards.
Until September 13, next Monday, companies will know if they have passed the final stage, but Luís Pedro Cardoso recalls that, regardless of the results and the classification, «Vodafone Portugal will keep in touch with all participants in order to explore possible business opportunities related to the projects presented or others that arise and that are of interest to both parties «, opening a door that can become a golden opportunity in view of the number of clients and pan-European scope operator.
The positive experience in this contest replicates previous initiatives where the community of developers Portuguese have already shown their dynamism. «Although Portugal, given its size, has a reduced relative position within the group of 8 Operators participating in this project (Vodafone 360), it has managed to exceed expectations and achieve indicators well above the natural quota», added Luís Pedro Cardoso.
In the competition launched last year for the development of applications, Vodafone Portugal had an above average participation balance, with 40% of the international competition prizes being won by developers Portuguese.
Also in the App Star contest, 20% of applications were delivered by developers Portuguese, and the winner was the Portuguese Pedro Campos, whose company currently collaborates with Vodafone whenever opportunities arise in the development of mobile applications.
