NAVTEQ Announces Finalists and Judges Panel for 2010 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge(R) in Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) Region

Over $2 million US (Euro 1.4 million) in prizes to be awarded to EMEA region winners at ceremony on 14 February 2010 in Barcelona

News provided by

NAVTEQ

Feb 08, 2010, 09:55 ET

CHICAGO, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data for in-vehicle, portable, wireless and enterprise solutions, announced today the finalists of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region of the 2010 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge. Twelve contestants have been selected to advance to Final Judging, including location-aware applications with the latest features in social networking, driving and pedestrian navigation, augmented reality, workforce management, gaming, advertising and couponing.

The winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on Sunday, 14 February in Barcelona, Spain. The finalists for the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge in the EMEA region are:

IOTO International Inc. (www.ioto.ca), Canada: WHAXI lets you hail a taxi to your GPS location with a push of a button.
Livecontacts (www.livecontacts.com), The Netherlands: Livecontacts Mobile offers assurance, safety and security anywhere in the world through a unique set of features, including real-time tracking of mobile phones and GPS trackers.
M2Mobi (www.m2mobi.com), The Netherlands: Nulaz is a social information source that allows you to see where people, places and events are located around you.
Mobile Agreements GmbH (www.mogree.com), Austria: With Mogree™, you can interact with people around you who share your interests—talk to existing friends and meet new people.
Mobilizy GmbH (www.mobilizy.com), Germany: Wikitude Drive is a turn-by-turn navigation system based on NAVTEQ® maps that utilizes an augmented reality camera mode and text-to-speech instructions.
Mobitee (www.mobitee.com), France: Mobitee is a GPS golf assistant that allows you to find the nearest golf course, follow route guidance via NAVTEQ maps, know the distance to each green and calculate your score.
Telmap™ (www.telmap.com), Israel: Telmap5 is the world's first personalized location companion that allows operators to differentiate their mobile offerings with highly targeted and local content in the framework of search, mapping and navigation.
United Maps (http://unitedmaps.net), Germany: Walk & Ride packs comprehensive map detail and extensive information into an offline application that works any place, any time, with no hassle.
VIOM GmbH (www.viom.de), Germany: VIOS Mobile Leader offers workforce management to go—keep in touch with your business, everywhere.
XiLabs (www.xilabs.fr), France: Alien Attack is an outdoor GPS game in which you must destroy the alien's eggs before the monster catches you—run!
Yoose GmbH (www.yoose.com), Germany: Yoose's coupon widget provides easy access to coupons and discounts close to where you are, directly from your mobile phone's home screen.
ZorroGPS® (www.zorrogps.com), China: ZorroGPS LIVE comes with 16 live navigation services on SIM PNDs and mobile phones, including Europe or North America NAVTEQ maps, all at a low price.

The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is a worldwide developer competition conducted by NAVTEQ Network for Developers™ (NN4D), NAVTEQ's global community and support program for location-based solution (LBS) developers and business partners. Every year NN4D invites developers to build and submit original, pre-commercialized applications using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ maps.

"Now in its seventh year, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge continues to advance and inspire the creation of innovative location-based applications and to illuminate new and upcoming talent among the developers of these solutions," commented Marc Naddell, vice president, partner and developer programs, NAVTEQ. "This year's high-quality and diverse panel of official judges – encompassing geospatial platform providers, device manufacturers, the automotive industry, network operators, development tools and service providers as well as business incubation partners – brings vast experience in evaluating the technical and go-to-market potential of LBS applications."

Final Judging will also take place on Sunday, 14 February in Barcelona. Delegates from the following companies will serve as official judges:

Application Center for Satellite Navigation Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) – Thorsten Rudolph, Managing Director, ESNC
BMW − Dr. Thomas Muller, Department Manager, Navigation and Connected Services
deCarta – Marc Prioleau, Global Marketing Strategist
Deutsche Telekom − Alexander Landwehr, Head of International Partnerships
DeviceAnywhere − Leila Modarres, Vice President, Marketing
DigitalGlobe − Jim Beckley, Director , Global Account Sales
HTC − Philip Blair, Product Director, HTC Europe
Intel − Pankaj Kedia, Director, Global Ecosystem Programs, Ultra Mobility Group
Microsoft Corporation − Chris Pendleton, Technical Evangelist, Bing Maps
Research In Motion (RIM) − Mike Kirkup, Director, Developer Relations
Samsung – Byongjoo Kwak, Manager, Media Solutions Center Group
Tanla − Harri Myllyla, Vice President, Business Development
Telefonica − Igor Gonzalez Martin, Manager, GPP (Genasys Positioning Platform)

Visit www.LBSChallenge.com for information on the other four regions in this year's competition: North America, India, South America and Asia Pacific (APAC).

NAVTEQ will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress (15 – 18 February, stand #1D59) and will be demonstrating a broad scope of innovative mapping solutions that showcase the evolution of the end-user experience for today's consumer. NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) is also Lead Sponsor of the WIP Jam sessions at App Planet at Mobile World Congress (18 February) and will be discussion leader for the group session "Using Location to Differentiate Mobile Apps." For more information, go to http://wipjam.com/wipjam-mwc/.

Notes to Editors

Prizes

NAVTEQ and sponsoring companies are offering prizes that contribute to a global prize pool of over $10 million dollars US (approximately 7 million Euros) in cash, tool and data licenses, and handsets, making the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge one of the industry's most rewarding developer competitions. In addition, "Best of" recognition awards will be awarded for up to seven different categories to recognize achievements in particular areas.

Sponsors

Bing Maps, deCarta, DeviceAnywhere, DigitalGlobe, HTC, Intel Moblin, RIM, and Tanla globally sponsor the 2010 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge, with AtlasCT and Telefonica as regional sponsors for the EMEA region. Imagination Technologies and Mobile Distillery are global award sponsors, with The Code Project and GPS Business News serving as media sponsors.

Awards Ceremony

The Global LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, 14 February at 18:00 (6pm), preceded by a cocktail reception / contestant preview from 16:30 (4:30pm) at City Hall, Poble Espanyol de Montjuic, Avenida Marques de Comillas 13, 08038, Barcelona, Spain. If you are a member of the press interested in attending this invite-only event, please email your name and company information to Arianna Geith at [email protected].

About the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge®

First launched in 2003, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is a worldwide competition conducted by NAVTEQ Network for Developers™ (NN4D), daring application developers around the world to build innovative location-based services (LBS) using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQ® maps. Integrating the accuracy and richness of NAVTEQ digital map data and LBS content facilitates the timely evolution of the next wave of location-aware applications. The Global LBS Challenge has become the premier event in the LBS industry for shining the spotlight on global LBS innovation and opportunity. Over 32% of the finalists from the past six years 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 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. NN4D includes resources such as mapping APIs, LBS content, point of interest data and routing information as well as geospatial platforms and tools from NAVTEQ and its partners. Members can rely on NN4D when creating GPS-based applications for the web, mobile phones, GIS and portable navigation devices that employ traffic, navigation, location content and location-based advertising for enterprise and consumer use. Connect with the people, tools and resources you need to build and market your location-enabled products by joining today at www.NN4D.com/joindevelopers.

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 4,400 employees located in 195 offices and in 44 countries.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060313/NAVTEQLOGO)

SOURCE NAVTEQ