28 January 2010, Barcelona: The GSMA today revealed exciting new developments in its inaugural App Planet event being held at the 2010 Mobile World Congress. The GSMA announced that Google and Motorola will each hold application developer conferences (ADC) within App Planet, bringing the total number of individual ADCs at Mobile World Congress to six. The GSMA also announced that it is partnering with Berkeley Mobile International Collaborative to launch the global “University Mobile Challenge”, a competition designed to spur mobile application development and innovation at the university level. Additionally, the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) announced finalists for the 6th edition of the gaming awards and will name the eight award winners at the IMGA ceremony on Monday, 15 February at App Planet.

“Solely focused on the rapidly growing application developer community, App Planet will bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer for the GSMA. “Application development is one of the most vibrant, innovative areas within mobile today, and we’re thrilled with the early response to App Planet.”

Leading Platform Dev Conferences under One Roof at App Planet

Google will host an Android Developer Lab at App Planet on Wednesday, 17 February. The full-day session is targeted towards current Android developers as well as those who are interested in learning more about the platform. Participants will have the opportunity to attend a technical session, talk to the Android developer relations team, and meet other members of the growing Android developer community.

MOTODEV, Motorola’s developer network, will host a Developer Day on Monday, 15 February. In this half-day event, MOTODEV will give developers an opportunity to spend the day getting tools, guidance, go-to-market knowledge and community support they need to create a whole new generation of phenomenal user experiences on Motorola’s Android-based devices. Developers will get access to the latest Android devices from Motorola, meet with MOTODEV experts and learn how to capitalise on the worldwide mobile market opportunity. Motorola is also a sponsor of the IMGA awards at App Planet.

The full schedule of App Planet ADCs is:

• Monday, 15 February – Vodafone 360 Developer Conference
• Monday, 15 February – Developer Day hosted by MOTODEV
• Tuesday, 16 February – BlackBerry Developer Day by RIM
• Wednesday, 17 February – Sony Ericsson Creation Day
• Wednesday, 17 February – Google Android Developer Lab
• Thursday, 18 February – WIPJam Application Developer Conference

GSMA and BMIC Launch App Dev Challenge for University Students

The GSMA has teamed with Berkeley Mobile International Collaborative (BMIC), a non-profit organisation focused on bringing innovative, real-world educational and entrepreneurial opportunities and experiences to college students throughout the world, to create the global University Mobile Challenge. The University Mobile Challenge will bring together teams of students from universities that offer courses in mobile app development and entrepreneurship.

Groups of students form start-up teams to create an original mobile application in a category of their choice (personal utility, game, service, entertainment, location service, etc.), Students must take the application from an abstract idea to a working model along with a business plan. In the final exams for the project, the competing teams will present to a panel of judges as well as their classmates, and will publicly demonstrate their respective mobile apps, including outlining the market value, the business plan and go-to-market strategy. The winning team with the combination of the strongest mobile application concept and business plan from each university will be invited to a regional competition at a country level. Each national winning university team will be sponsored to go on to compete in the global final competition, the first of which will be held at the 2011 Mobile World Congress. More information on the University Mobile Challenge can be found at http://bmic.org/.

IMGA to Hold 6th Annual Awards at App Planet

An international judging panel of 20 specialists have selected the 25 best new games for mobile phones in the 6th edition of the International Mobile Gaming Awards. The selection was made from more than 150 entries coming from 36 countries including China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. According to the IMGA, 60% of all award entries were iPhone applications, versus just 16% last year. In addition to the iPhone entries, nominations covered all platforms including Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android, Maemo and Linux. The IMGA will announce the eight award winners at an invitation-only ceremony being held at App Planet at the Mobile World Congress on 15 February. For more information on the International Mobile Gaming Awards, please visit www.imgawards.com.

About App Planet at the GSMA Mobile World Congress

The inaugural App Planet event will feature application developer conferences; an interactive exhibition; the App Lounge for networking and business development activities; a dedicated, day-long conference programme on industry trends in mobile applications; and the App Garage, which will showcase cutting-edge GSMA initiatives in the mobile applications space. App Planet will host more than 120 exhibiting companies and the GSMA expects between 3,000 and 5,000 mobile application developers to visit App Planet over four days.

Full information on App Planet is available here.

Sponsors for the 2010 Mobile World Congress include LG Electronics as Platinum Sponsor and Generalitat de Catalunya as Mobile Innovations Platinum Sponsor. For more information on the 2010 Mobile World Congress, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com.

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About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the new online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at www.gsmworld.com.

Media Contacts:

GSMA

Daniel Lowther

+44 7747 636 687 (mobile)

press@gsm.org