Mobile applications developers drawn from selected African countries have until end of this month to submit their entries to Ericsson’s “APPS FOR AFRICA” challenge which seeks to identify and reward apps which demonstrate how mobile technology can support livelihood in rural Africa.
The competition, organized in partnership with Sony Ericsson as part of Ericsson Application Awards 2012 (EAA 2012), is open to both students and small and medium sized enterprises (with less than 100 employees) within Eastern Africa – Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda.
There competition has two categories – one for students and one for companies, and works with the theme: “Apps for the Networked Society,” which aims to promote innovations from a variety of environments, places and situations as well as by connecting people, things and places to empower individuals and society. The “Networked Society” is an Ericsson vision targeting a combination of mobility, broadband, the cloud, applications and services for an empowered society.
Entrants have to develop an application based on the Android platform (Web or Native) that addresses the theme and makes use of at least one 
(e.g. Mobile Location, Text To Speech, etc.).
With a grand prize of EUR 15,000, members of the winning team will each receive a Sony Ericsson Xperia phone, while teams in second place will receive Business Experience Packs (including Sony Ericsson MW600, Office Pro, McAfee, and a Micro USB cable).
The submitted applications will be evaluated by Ericsson according to: app based on at least one Ericsson Labs API; addresses the theme “Apps for the Networked Society”; working application prototype; innovative solution and business potential.
The jury consists of representatives from Ericsson, Sony Ericsson and Google.
The deadlines are as follows: January 31, 2012 (final date for application submission to local Esstern Africa competition) and February 28, 2012 (final date for application submission to main competition).
Participants can contact Ericsson via: ericsson.application.awards(at)ericsson.com or
via our Forum, http://ericssonapplicationawards.com/forum
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