Rolling deadlines begin on November 6 for application developers from five regions of the world who wish to register for the popular NAVTEQ 2010 Global LBS Challenge.
This year’s five grand prize winners will be announced just before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next February 14.
Rolling deadlines begin on November 6 for application developers from five regions of the world who wish to register for the popular NAVTEQ 2010 Global LBS Challenge.
This year’s five grand prize winners will be announced just before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next February 14.
The Chicago-based electronic mapmaker NAVTEQ advertises a $8.2 million prize pool, the largest in this seven-year-old international competition. The contest seeks innovative Location Based Service ideas that use dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ map data on any platform or device.
Ideas cannot be in the commercial pipeline, but application developers do not have to have the solution completely worked out at the time of registration.
Entrants can compete in one of five regions:Europe-Middle-East-Africa (EMEA), North America, South America, India and Asia-Pacific (APAC). Grand prize winners from each region will come together in September 2010 for the Global LBS Challenge Grand Championship.
The registration deadline for 2010 comes on the heels of the announcement of the 2009 NAVTEQ LBS Challenge Global Champion. On September 24, 18 judges named T+1 Solutions the Global Champion at an award ceremony in London.
Estonian programmer Raoul Järvis, the company’s only employee, conducts R&D and provides IT services using programmers from India. He previously won the North America regional grand prize at the 2009 Mobile World Congress.
His small enterprise has taken home U.S.$560,000 in cash, free maps, licenses, tools, and services.
T+1Solutions’ application concept, TaxiPal (formerly Taxi4me) is a mobile taxi ordering service that helps potential passengers connect with a reputable ride. The customer sends time and destination information to a taxi brokering server from a mobile phone. Local companies send back bids and suggested routes and the customer can choose among them.
TaxiPal is in the idea stage, but Tallinn, the Estonian capital, would be a good place to test it, Järvis said in an interview with TigerPrises.com,an online news source for the Estonian Technology community.
Entrepreneurs, it could happen to you! Now it’s time to get to work on the 2010 prize.
This year’s sponsors are deCarta, DeviceAnywhere, HTC, BlackBerry (RIM) and Tanla. In addition to prize money, they offer tools and services to contestants.
2010 LBS Challenge Registration Deadlines:
EMEA: November 6, 2009 (extended)
North America: November 20, 2009
India: December 11, 2009
South America: February 12, 2010
APAC: March 5, 2010
