04 June 2009

SongDNA Scoops £20,000
Betavine Widget Competition Prize

The results of the Betavine Widget Competition were announced by Vodafone last night at the Mobile Web Summit 2.0 in London, with Dutch developer Marco Valent winning the £20,000 first prize for his “SongDNA” widget.

SongDNA uses a mash-up of web-based services from the BBC, Billboard and YouTube, amongst others, to enable users to search out information on their favourite artists and songs, including the year of a song’s release, its highest chart position, lyrics and even links to the video – making it an ideal pop trivia accompaniment.

The judging panel chose SongDNA because it scored highly against the competition’s criteria of ease of use, creativity and the value it offered the user. In addition to Marco receiving the £20,000 prize, SongDNA will be promoted to Vodafone’s UK customers through the Vodafone apps catalogue.

Two further widgets were selected as the runners up and will each receive a £1,000 prize. They are:

- Doris provides a ‘Things to Do List’ which can be managed on a mobile device and synchronised with the user’s web-based account. Doris demonstrates the role widgets can play in multi-platform services and was also praised for its look and feel, with the animated transitions and active icon drawing notable praise from the judges.

- Crossroads locates really useful info for mobile users on the move. It’s easy to use and aggregates data from a number of sources to enable the user to find local restaurants, hotels, museums and even taxi companies. Presented through an intuitive interface, the judges felt Crossroads provides a valuable service when users needed it the most.

The Betavine Widget Competition asked mobile developers to build widgets for devices based on the S60 platform using the Opera widget runtime. To access the apps, you need to use a device that is compatible with the Vodafone Apps Manager (see here for list of devices). To view other widgets visit: http://widget.vodafone.com

For developers keen to explore mobile widgets in more detail, the Betavine Widget Zone contains resources, tutorials and a host of other useful information to help get you started.

“We’re delighted with the response to the Betavine competition from the global developer community, and would like to thank all of the entrants for taking part” commented Amer Hasan, Senior Manager for Apps and Developer Programs with Vodafone Group.

“The variety and quality of the entries demonstrate some of the many ways in which widgets can deliver a compelling experience to mobile users and we hope they’ll provide inspiration for others to experiment with the technology and develop their own great ideas.”