MobileMonday and GSMA open operator doors for start-ups — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Aiming at GSMA Mobile Innovation Summit in Macau} MobileMonday and GSMA open operator doors for start-ups

28 Aug 2007 at 17:22 GMT Timo Poropudas

MobileMonday, the global community of over 70,000 mobile industry visionaries and developers, and the GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile phone operators, have entered into a strategic partnership to stimulate, accelerate and showcase innovation in the mobile sector.

The two organizations will work together to enable MobileMonday community members to take full advantage of the GSMA’s new Innovation Programme, which is designed to help the thousands of small and medium-sized companies developing innovative mobile products and services to rapidly reach mobile operators and bring their innovations to end-users.

http://www.mobileinnovation.org is open to mobile operators, venture capitalists and developers of mobile technology with less than USD 20 million in annual revenue. It opens up opportunities for entrepreneurs to pitch their products and services directly to decision-makers within mobile operators and venture capitalist firms, streamlining their route to market.

Ahead of the first Mobile Innovation Summit, to be held alongside the GSMA’s Mobile Asia Congress in Macau this November, senior executives from mobile operators and venture capitalists will review submissions from innovators; identifying and endorsing the top 50 small companies targeting the mobile sector.

These companies will have the opportunity to meet operators and investors at the summit where the leading companies in four categories will be recognized at a Mobile Innovation Awards ceremony. Senior executives from KTF, SingTel, Smart, Softbank and Telenor will be among the judges for this inaugural awards event.

Audience voting

Additionally, MobileMonday will set up an on-site mobile voting system at the Mobile Innovation Zone allowing audience members to vote for the best innovation from the top eight awards finalists. The innovation that attracts the most votes will be recognized with the ‘GSMA Mobile Innovation/Mobile Monday Audience Choice Award.’

“I can truly say that this partnership is what the MobileMonday community members have been looking for – how to streamline the process from innovation into beneficial products and services. These innovations occur all over the world today, and MobileMonday’s and GSMA’s partnership will now showcase them to GSMA members in a new way” said Jari Tammisto, CEO, Mobile Monday Ltd.

“This partnership brings together the thousands of innovative small companies that belong to MobileMonday community, and the 700 mobile operator members of the GSMA, enabling these two key constituencies to better work together to create exciting new mobile products and services that will appeal to consumers and business users,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer of the GSMA. “The Mobile Innovation Programme is a completely new approach that enables promising ideas to be identified and commercialized across the globe much faster than has been possible in the past.”

The Mobile Innovation Programme’s Web site will develop into a portal, hosting discussion forums, networking tools and a directory of leading innovators compiled from the shortlists produced for each Innovation Summit.

September 27th is the extended deadline for award submissions from companies aiming to be recognized at the first Mobile Innovation Summit in Macau at the Mobile Asia Congress in November 2007. The categories are:

Most Innovative Consumer Application or Service Most Innovative Wireless Device-Centric Technology Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market

From the four category winners above, one overall Mobile Innovation Award winner will be selected.