This post is brought to you by Mobile Future, sponsor of the Mashable Awards’ “Best Mobile App” Category. Its mission is to educate key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies. Check out their Year in Review video here.
The Mashable Awards, our annual contest highlighting the very best the web has to offer, has entered the final round. After announcing the five finalists in the “Best Mobile App” category supported by Mobile Future, we asked each finalist to answer a few questions for Mashable readers so that you could learn more about each nominee and decide which stellar app you might want to vote for.
We asked the nominees about their inspiration for getting involved with mobile apps, what makes their product stand out and what’s next. Check out what each nominee had to say and let us know in the comments who you think should win. Voting will be open until December 15, so pick your favorite and vote often.
Phil Libin, Evernote CEO, answers questions from Mashable about Evernote:
1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?“We always saw Evernote as an app for your entire life. A big chunk of your life is spent in front of your computer. An even bigger chunk of your life is spent out in the real world, where your mobile device becomes your most indispensable tool for information, entertainment and education. We want Evernote to present you with the best possible user experience at every point in your life — that’s why we have both desktop and mobile versions that all sync together seamlessly.”
2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?“There are some great finalists in our category, and many of them deserve to win. Of course we’re all pretty spectacularly different from each other. This is what makes the mobile app industry so exciting now.”
3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”“People should vote for their favorite app. We’re honored for any votes we receive.”
4. What’s your end goal in creating this app?“We’re building the world’s memory.”
5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?“2011 is going to be a huge year for Evernote: tons of new features, new devices and new countries, and a very significant investment in overall polish and quality. We want to be the trusted, permanent and ubiquitous destination of all your lifetime memories. This means that using Evernote should be as natural as using your own brain.”
Heath Ahrens, CEO of iSpeech, answers questions from Mashable about DriveSafe.ly:
1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?“I originally envisioned iSpeech apps helping college students read with their ears – letting them listen to course material while driving to class. Almost immediately upon launching the original iSpeech, one of our employees was rear-ended by a texting driver and it messed up his back pretty badly. The SMS reader concept became immediately apparent. I thought, let’s use core iSpeech cloud technology and wrap it up into a flagship app, call it ‘Drive Safe’ – it will be easy we thought. We were wrong about it being easy, but it has been rewarding and has really helped catapult iSpeech into a respectable position as a speech technology company.”
2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?“The fact that iSpeech is both a technology provider and an app developer differentiates us. Interestingly enough, most of the 7 million DriveSafe.ly users are on BlackBerry, and I think it was a good move to launch on BlackBerry first. It allowed us to create a large and loyal fan base in a relatively unsaturated market. Also, the DriveSafe.ly app was the first app to read messages aloud using cloud-based speech technology like iSpeech; it was a game-changing idea.”
3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”“People should vote for iSpeech’s DriveSafe.ly because using it helps keep people safer on the road. Even if you don’t text while driving, perhaps you can help keep someone else from doing it by encouraging them to use DriveSafe.ly. It’s not just an app, it’s a solid cause.”
4. What was your end goal in creating this app?“The idea behind DriveSafe.ly was to help solve a real problem, texting while driving, while mainstreaming iSpeech technology. DriveSafe.ly helps keep people’s eyes on the road, serves as a flagship ‘powered by iSpeech’ app and helps popularize the SMS reading genre of app and safe driving apps in general. The main purpose of the app isn’t entertainment, although it’s pretty funny when you send an inappropriate SMS to a friend to be spoken aloud when he’s with his mom. In all seriousness, perhaps the best reward is the thanks we have gotten from several outspoken safe driving advocates who appreciate the safety benefit and distracted driving awareness that DriveSafe.ly provides.”
5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?“DriveSafe.ly for iPhone has been in the works for quite some time here at iSpeech and we’re very close to launch. Also, iSpeech has opened up the same text to speech and speech recognition APIs used for DriveSafe.ly for other developers to use for free. To this end, we have partnered with Car and Driver Magazine, TeleNav, Cobra and Polar Mobile to get our technology in the hands of more people.”
Andre Sommer, marketer at eBuddy, answers questions from Mashable:
1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?“eBuddy started evaluating the possibility to get in the mobile business back in 2006, when only few knew the meaning of ‘apps.’ With the large popularity of its Web Messenger, eBuddy saw the opportunity to jump into mobile and provide its users with a chance to be online always and everywhere.”
2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?“Of all the finalists, eBuddy is the most relevant and universal service to a mobile audience, justified by its more than 100 million mobile app downloads. First off, eBuddy combines the world’s most popular IM networks in one interface, being a relevant service to hundreds of millions of people. Secondly, its reach has no barriers: eBuddy is translated to a variety of languages and its five mobile solutions make eBuddy compatible with any Internet-compatible mobile device.”
3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”“People should vote for eBuddy as ‘Best Mobile App’ because eBuddy best represents the mobile app market with its experience, versatility and success in the field.”
4. What was your end goal in creating this app?“eBuddy’s mobile apps were created in order to make instant messaging accessible to a larger audience and allow users to be online anytime, anyplace. And, as our slogan similarly states, we aim to continue providing the best web and mobile messaging products to everyone, everywhere.”
5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?“eBuddy is working on exciting new things that will further solidify the company as one of the main mobile messaging players in the world. Stay tuned!”
Scoutmob co-founder Michael Tavani and “Y-Factor” Nicole Jayne answer questions from Mashable:
1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?“Everybody loves a good deal, but printing and tracking paper coupons is downright clunky. Ever sit down at a restaurant only to remember the half-price gift certificate left on the kitchen table? It’s time for innovation in the deal-a-day space. Scoutmob was inspired by the way people rely on mobile phones to make shopping and dining decisions on the fly. Mobile technology allows Scoutmob to connect people to cool local merchants in their immediate area, adding spontaneity into the deal-getting equation.”
- Michael Tavani, Co-Founder
2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?“Scoutmob is the only app that saves you money, for free. Flash the app or SMS text message at a Scoutmob-approved local business and BOOM, your bill is cut in half. In business speak, Scoutmob is an online service that drives offline action. With Scoutmob, users are getting out and exploring businesses they have never visited. After that initial Scoutmob-sponsored visit, they are transforming into life-long customers.”
- Nicole Jayne, Y-Factor
3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”“Do you like saving money? Do you like supporting awesome local restaurants and shops? Do you like mustaches? Do you like curious city finds? Soon Scoutmob will be in dozens of cities, so a vote for Scoutmob is a vote for sweet local deals in a smartphone neighborhood near you.”
- Nicole Jayne, Y-Factor
4. What was your end goal in creating this app?“Scoutmob seeks to revolutionize the way people connect to local businesses in their city. It’s all about helping you be a better local at a better price. You could think of the Scoutmob app as a reverse Foursquare; Whereas on Foursquare, users check in after they have arrived at a place they were intending to go, Scoutmob inspires thousands of people a day to go all the way across town to check out a place they have never been to.
Of course, we had to include some fun stuff to entertain you out and about. The mustache camera is the only one of it’s kind included in a free app, not to mention incredibly fun and conducive to sharing. And while our staff is scouting new deals, they collect great city trivia for your perusal in the curiosities section. Now put down that tuna sandwich you packed for lunch and head out to the city with your fellow mobsters.”
– Michael Tavani, Co-Founder
5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?“In 2011, we’ll be focused on geographic expansion, bringing our innovative deal-a-day model to more people, in more cities. We are also working on new features to encourage loyalty and repeat visits to our featured local businesses. Our aim is to simplify the one-to-one relationship between merchants and the customers that have expressed interest in them. For example, we’re hoping to allow restaurants to push motivating time-sensitive deals to drive business during slow times. Additionally, you can expect more ‘stache focused product development.”
– Michael Tavani, Co-Founder
Jan Ole Suhr, founder of mobileways.de, creators of the Gravity app, answers questions from Mashable:
1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps? “I’ve been fascinated by mobile phones since I saw them in public during a vacation in Finland. Being a programmer, I wanted to be able to develop apps for mobile phones right from the start, so I could take my own desktop apps with me everywhere I’d go. It took a while before this dream came true and I started my ‘career’ as an apps developer with the Symbian/S60-based Nokia 7650 back in 2002.”
2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?“I don’t know the competing apps that well and wouldn’t want to judge them unduly. I am very happy to see that so many users have been nominating Gravity for the Best Mobile App. Gravity is a Nokia-/Symbian-only application, and that makes it unique in this competition already. Gravity is also the product of continuous support and encouragement of its user base, which I think is very special. It’s a give and take. Without the feedback, Gravity wouldn’t have all those features and different services that it offers today.”
3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”“Gravity tries to bring state-of-the art user experience and an iPhone-like user interface to Nokia/Symbian phones. Voting for Gravity would recognize all the effort put into creating this application. It would hopefully encourage other developers to consider working for Nokia platforms as well and increase competition and innovation among smartphone operating systems.”
4. What’s next for you/your company/your product?“First of all, there are still many features missing in Gravity. I will hopefully be able to continue working on [them] and improving the application throughout the next months. There are plans for other apps, too, but currently all resources are dedicated to Gravity.”
5. What’s your end goal in creating this app?“I am still focused on creating the best mobile Twitter and social networking client with Gravity. This might be a goal hard to achieve, and one wouldn’t necessarily pick the Symbian platform for it. I hope that Gravity keeps being a benchmark app for the Symbian platform and that it can compete with iPhone and Android apps in terms of usability and user experience.”
You have from now until December 15 to pick your favorite. If you have questions about the Mashable Awards or the list of finalists, please post them to our GetSatisfaction page. Let us know which mobile app is your favorite. You can vote once per category per day, so get voting!
In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.
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This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the spark of genius which focuses on a new startup series and innovative in every day. Every Thursday, the program focuses on start-ups programme BizSpark and what they are doing to grow.
BizSpark is a boot program that gives you access to three years for the latest Microsoft development tools so that connect you to a national network of investors and business incubators. There is no initial fee, so if your company is the private owner, less than three years and generates less than raising millions in annual revenue, you can register now.
The next iteration of Apple iPad perhaps a front and a camera facing aft, Reuters reports citing multiple sources.