The premier developer competition for location-based applications launches with dedicated South America and India tracks in addition to EMEA, North America and APAC regions
The details for the first two regions have already been confirmed:
-- The registration period for EMEA ends on Friday, October 30, 2009.
Solution submission deadline is Friday, November 20, 2009. The judging
and awards ceremony will be held at a NAVTEQ hosted event at Poble
Espanyol in Barcelona on February 14, 2010 during Mobile World Congress
2010.
-- The registration period for the North America region ends on Friday,
November 20, 2009. Solution submission deadline is Friday, January 8,
2010. The judging and awards ceremony will be held at Where 2.0 (March
30-April 1, 2010) in San Jose (CA), USA. NAVTEQ will present the winner
on stage during the opening keynote on the evening of March 30, 2010.
Details on the other regional tracks will follow shortly on the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge website. The addition of the dedicated tracks for India and South America regions to the competition this year reflects the global interest in location-based services, the ambition to tap the innovation in the fast-growing mobile developer community and show industry support for emerging markets.
This year's NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge also introduces new features to encourage wider developer participation and provide even more industry exposure for contestants:
-- Contestants may submit their pre-commercialized location-based
applications for any platform and for any device, provided they employ
NAVTEQ map data. Technical support will be given for sponsor endorsed
platforms and devices from multiple vendors.
-- In addition to prizes given for the four applications with the top
scores in each region, NAVTEQ will award "Best Of. . ."
recognitions to individual applications in a wide range of categories,
for example Best use of User Generated Content (UGC), Best Use of
Location-Based Advertising, and Best Use of Pedestrian Content (see
regional rules for details).
-- NAVTEQ will hold a competition at the conclusion of the 2010 NAVTEQ
Global LBS Challenge with each Grand Prize Winner from the five regions
competing against each other for the title of "Global LBS Challenge
CHAMPION." The five Grand Prize Winners will compete for the title
in conjunction with the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC)
International Evaluation Meeting to be held in mid to late September of
2010.
The global prize pool for this year's competition will start at $6.7 million USD in cash and licenses and is expected to grow as all sponsor prizes are finalized.
Now in its seventh year, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is the premier event in the location-based services (LBS) industry, inviting application developers to build innovative applications for devices using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ(R) maps. It is a world-wide competition conducted by NAVTEQ Network for Developers(TM) (NN4D), NAVTEQ's global community and support program for LBS developers and business partners. Over 32% of semifinalists have gone on to receive venture capital funding or launch commercially distributed applications.
"With the addition of India and South America as contest regions and the expansion of the rules to include LBS applications for any platform and device, we expect the 2010 edition of the Global LBS Challenge to produce our best group of location and context aware applications to date," commented Marc Naddell, vice president, partner and developer programs, NAVTEQ. "We believe that the extended scope of the competition, the breadth of awards and the significant prize pool, as well as the additional industry exposure around the CHAMPION selection make for a very attractive proposition to developers globally."
To see full details on this year's competition, go to the new Global LBS Challenge website: www.LBSChallenge.com.
About the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge
First launched in 2003, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is focused on driving the development and visibility of innovative navigation solutions for wireless devices. From wireless business applications to sports, travel and security, integrating the accuracy and richness of NAVTEQ digital map data facilitates the timely evolution of the next wave of LBS. Over 32% of past semifinalists have gone on to receive venture capital funding or launch commercially-distributed applications. For more information on this year's competition, go to www.LBSChallenge.com.
About NAVTEQ Network for Developers
NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) is a dynamic online web portal and global community that provides developers and business partners with the technical and business support needed to build, showcase and launch the most innovative location-enabled solutions. Connect with the people, tools and resources you need to grow your business by visiting www.NN4D.com.
About NAVTEQ
NAVTEQ is the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data that enables navigation and location-based platforms around the world. NAVTEQ supplies comprehensive digital map information to power automotive navigation systems, portable and wireless devices, Internet-based mapping applications and government and business solutions. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has approximately 4,000 employees located in 190 offices and in 39 countries.
NAVTEQ, NAVTEQ Network for Developers and Global LBS Challenge are trademarks of NAVTEQ in the U.S. and other countries. All rights reserved.
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SOURCE NAVTEQ
Web site:
http://www.navteq.com/
http://www.LBSChallenge.com/
