NAVTEQ Announces The Finalists And Official Judges Of The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenger In The Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region - Thirteen applications selected and competing in the finals for the Grand Prize during Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona next week 

NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions (LBS) and vehicle navigation, announces the finalists of the EMEA edition of the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge. Brought to you by NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D), the Global LBS Challenge is a world-wide developer competition which invites developers to build and submit original, pre-commercialised applications using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQr maps. There are five categories: content, enterprise, entertainment & leisure, navigation and social networking. 

Over 180 companies registered for this year's Global LBS Challenge in EMEA. During the preliminary round judging in Paris in December, all competing applications which had passed the eligibility criteria were evaluated on the basis of commercial feasibility, functionality and design by a panel of judges from NAVTEQ and the industry. Thirteen contestants have now been selected to move on to the final judging and awards ceremony during the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.

The Finalists for NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge in EMEA are:

Social Networking category

Birkett Enterprise Ltd, UK: PhoneLocator: A phone tracking application that uses GPS to recover lost phones. It can also be used to turn your phone off remotely so that no one else can use it.
Enterprise category

Carbon Hero Ltd, UK: Carbon Diem: An application using GPS technology to track a person's carbon footprint based on his/her transportation choices. It tracks your travel and informs you as to how much energy you could save while using different means of transportation (walking, bus, train, car etc). It also keeps track of all the places you have visited.
MobGeo Ltd, UK: MobGeo: A location-based advertising application that delivers mobile coupons / vouchers to your phone when you select a geographic area on a map along with food or store preferences.
NaviExpert Sp. z.o.o., Poland: MONAPI (Mobile Online Navigation API): An emergency services application for reporting an emergency event in a specific location. Browse a map, select a point and send an emergency request with a brief text description of the situation. Emergency services' employees are alerted on their mobile phones and can be guided to the emergency location by means of turn-by-turn voice navigation.
Navigation

CCC, Hungary: Quest4POI: A mobile application that helps you find interesting Points of Interest (POIs) for specific locations. You can move around the map and it will highlight the number of attractions in a particular area to help make the most of your time available for sightseeing.
Crambo Labs, Spain: Econav: A driving application that helps you save fuel through efficient routing, enabling you to select the most economical route to get to your chosen destination.
T+1 Solutions, Estonia: EcoRide: A location-assisted car pooling application that allows you to develop your own car pooling community to save fuel costs and be more environmentally friendly by reducing the number of cars on the road. It enables you to find a ride, share a ride or even offer a ride and also gives you the option to share the application with a friend.
Entertainment & Leisure

Connecthings, France: ezStroll: An advertising application that allows you to select a geographical area and receive promotional messages from surrounding businesses and visitor sites (shops, museums, etc).
MSG Software Ltd. (While on the Move), Finland: SkiInLapland: A ski-guide application that lists the top ski resorts and allows ski enthusiasts to share text, images and videos about the places they visit. Accurate pin points allow you to locate specific areas easily and store comments and evaluations of places visited. It also lets you swap images and videos with friends about the places of interest in that area.
Yoose GmbH, Germany: Mobile Coupons: A "mobile wallet" application replacing plastic loyalty cards and paper coupons from stores and travel providers, delivering them directly to your mobile. The mobile phone becomes a one-to-one marketing tool with measurable response rates for each individual user. The consumer can save shopping lists on the phone and benefit from greater savings and personalised offers always readily available.
Content

Kishonti Informatics Bt, Hungary: NaviGenie: Mapping information presented in a route planning application using high quality perspective mode 2.5D and 3D views of city and street maps as well as building footprints. There are several different user-customisable view options, including bird, satellite and street-perspective views.
PH Informática SA, Portugal: CityGuide: An enhanced POI application with high level of clarity and accuracy photos, images and video imagery not typically available on today's devices. The application also has a simplified process to set up appointments with friends.
·                                                                                                                                                       Skobbler GmbH, Germany: Skobbler: An application that allows young, urban consumers to share information, personal comments and         recommendations on places and activities around the city. Skobbler provides useful tips on their mobile phones, combining local search of, for example, NAVTEQ dynamic content such as events or movies with sponsored advertising links and GPS navigation to the advertised place.

"We are very excited to see the final versions of these applications in the final round of judging," comments Marc Naddell, vice president, partner & developer programs, NAVTEQ.  "NAVTEQ has invited a panel of industry experts from different parts of the value chain to serve as official judges, all of whom have vast experience of evaluating applications and solutions for go-to-market channels. "

The final judging will take place on Sunday, 15th February, on site during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The official judges are:

Dr. Christoph Grote, VP Information and Communication Systems, BMW
Rakesh Mahajan, Director, Global Mobility Marketing, BT
Marc Prioleau, VP Marketing & Business Development, deCarta
François René Letourneur, Partner/Board Member, I-Source Gestion
Jure Sustersic, Business Development Manager, LBS, Forum Nokia
Steve Glagow, Vice President, Orange Partner
Dr. Jay Han, Ph.D., Principal Engineer, Advanced Technologies Group, Samsung
Jens Greve, Senior Manager, Head of Sony Ericsson Developer World, Sony Ericsson
Carlos Marín Escriche, Telefonica Innovation Lab
Martin Wirsing, Head of Business Development Special Projects, T-Mobile International AG, T-Mobile International AG (Deutsche Telekom)
Sergio Cozzolino, VP of ICT Mobile Solutions, Telecom Italia
Philipp  Schläfer, Sr Manager, Internet Partnerships, Vodafone
Vlad Mihalca, Head of Wind Innovation Lab, Wind
The Awards Ceremony

The Global LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony will be held on Tuesday 17th February at 16.00h in the City Hall, Poble Espanyol de Montjuïc, Avenida Marqués de Comillas 13, 08038 Barcelona. The Nokia "Calling all Innovators" program will take place on the same stage, prior to the LBS Challenge awards, beginning at 15:30h. Poble Espanyol de Montjuïc is a five minutes walk from the Mobile World Congress venue (Fira Barcelona) and NAVTEQ shuttles to Poble Espanyol will be available at the shuttle pick-up area outside the Convention Centre.  Admission is free and the awards will be followed by a cocktail reception.  If you would like to attend please inform Sue Mather: +44 1342 833313 or

 
NAVTEQ and sponsoring companies are offering prizes which contribute to a global prize pool of over $5.25 million dollars US (approximately ?4 million Euros) in cash, tool and data licences and handsets, making the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge one of the industry's most rewarding developer competitions.

The sponsors
deCarta, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are globally sponsoring the 2009 edition of the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge r with Telefónica and Orange Partner as Platinum-level sponsors for the EMEA Region.  For the Americas Region, Telefónica is a Platinum sponsor and Autodesk Location Services a Gold-level sponsor.  

 About the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenger

First launched in 2003, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is a developer competition daring application developers around the world to build innovative location-based services (LBS) for mobile phones using dynamic positioning technology and NAVTEQr maps. The Global LBS Challenge has become the premier event in the LBS industry and a global symbol of LBS innovation and opportunity. Over 30% of past semifinalists have gone on to receive venture capital funding or launch commercially-distributed applications. 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. For more information or to register for this year's competition, go to www.LBSChallenge.com. 

About NAVTEQ Network for Developers

NAVTEQ Network for DevelopersT (NN4D) is a dynamic online web portal and 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 a leading provider of comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. NAVTEQ creates the digital maps and map content that power navigation and location-based services solutions around the world. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has more than 4,000 employees located in 194 offices and in 43 countries.