djuice has announced the winners of Apportunity 2014 competition. The announcement was made during an event in Karachi which was attended by representatives from Telenor Pakistan and djuice, in the presence of academia, partner vendors, small & medium enterprises, media and budding entrepreneurs.
This year djuice had partnered with Microsoft to help bring the competition to the Windows Phone platform besides the already popular Google Android and Apple iOS. Microsoft also supported djuice to reach major university incubation centers in order to encourage quality app submissions. Moreover, with the support of Pakistan Software House Association (P@SHA), for the first time, djuice opened up the competition to software houses, as well.
The Apportunity team visited 11 universities & incubation centers all across Pakistan to conduct mentoring sessions in order for users to interact with industry experts and refine their app ideas.
Apportunity 2014 received 110 submissions in 11 distinct categories from 28 cities across Pakistan. ‘Team Amplifiers’ won the competition for developing ‘Project AMP’ which they describe as a “solution to transform a mobile phone and a Bluetooth headset into an economically programmable hearing-aid device.”
The winning app will be represented at Digital Winners Global App Developer Challenge 2014 in Oslo and stand a chance to win the ‘Best App in Asia’ award with prize money of $ 33,000. In case the app fails to win the award, djuice will reward Rs. 200,000 to Team Amplifiers.
In the new category of Best Internet App, Fayyaz Minhas won prizes worth Rs. 100,000 for developing the app titled Pakwheels.com. All participants went home with something to cheer their hard work; djuice awarded the runner’s up with Rs 200,000 worth of prizes besides awarding Nokia Lumia handsets and internship opportunities at Microsoft Innovation Centre Pakistan to the winners in each category.
Besides their native platforms, all winning apps will also be hosted at the Telenor App Store which is an innovative platform to promote local apps and encourage entrepreneurial projects in the mobile app development sector.
Irfan Wahab Khan, Chief Marketing Officer, Telenor Pakistan lauded the enthusiasm of all the contestants and said, “We are delighted to observe the quality and concepts of apps registered with the competition this year. They show that Pakistani youth is aware of the power of mobile technology and its ability to drive social change with purposeful utilization of internet.” “We believe programs like Apportunity will play a significant role in promoting the production of local content and consequently develop 3G ecosystem in Pakistan, taking us closer to our ambition of bringing “Internet for All,” he added.
