WeFi voted the ‘Forum Nokia EMEA Application of the Year 2008’

An application that maps Wi-Fi hotspots has won the ‘Forum Nokia EMEA Application of the Year 2008’ award in Barcelona, Spain. The application won the honour by gaining the most votes from the award ceremony’s audience.

An application that brings together the two big phenomena of modern communications - communities and mobile broadband - has won the ‘Forum Nokia EMEA Application of the Year 2008’ award. WeFi is a novel community application that maps Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide according to users’ experiences. WeFi identifies and automatically connects a mobile device or a laptop to the best available Wi-Fi hotspot. It also sends information about the hotspot back to the central server which then provides the data for other users.

Currently the application has nearly 11 million Wi-Fi access points in its database, with two million more being added each month. The potential is huge. ‘There are 350 million Wi-Fi access points around the world, and the number is growing at a rate of 30 million per year’, said Uri Neeman, executive vice president of the application’s developer, WeFi Ltd of Israel. ‘This will rise to 70 million being added annually by 2012.’

Top applications compete

Beating nine other finalists at the award ceremony in Barcelona on
1 December 2008, WeFi was voted into the top slot by the award ceremony's audience, after presentations from each developer. The audience consisted of Nokia decision makers, operator and aggregator business contacts, media representatives, and mobile developers.

‘It’s very nice to get this recognition. It means that a wide range of people across many disciplines have seen our value, and it is the community that makes us’, Neeman said at the event. ‘Our success can only be achieved if the community believes in what we do and users spread the word. We are creating an enormous virtual Wi-Fi network that improves dramatically the capability to connect seamlessly to Wi-Fi networks and bring a better user experience to everyone.’

The evening’s runner-up application was HappyWakeUp from Smart Valley Software Ltd. This smart alarm clock uses a mobile phone’s microphone to monitor a user’s sleep phases to awaken the user at an appropriate stage of sleep for a heathier awakening.

In third place was fring, a mobile internet service and community. fring enables users to interact with social networks, make free calls, chat, swap files, and more. fringAdd-ons are applications that enrich the experience of the service.

‘Nokia is proud to recognize outstanding developers from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as participants in our ‘Forum Nokia EMEA Application of the Year 2008’ award ceremony. Forum Nokia is dedicated to providing technical and business support services for innovators like WeFi and is excited to continue putting applications like this in front of consumers’, said Seppo Oksa, director, Forum Nokia EMEA. ’WeFi is a great example of an innovative solution using Nokia platforms and the power of the community to enhance mobile end-user experiences.’

WeFi continues to develop

Neeman reports about a million downloads of the WeFi application so far, simply through viral marketing and the fact that WeFi is available for free. Developments in early 2009 will see launches of advertising-sponsored and premium versions. The premium version is aimed mainly at corporate users and will include features to further improve the user experience.

Neeman offered advice for fellow developers: ‘Produce the best-quality product possible, because you have only one chance and you’ll be burned if it isn’t good. Also listen to the community, put your application out there, and let people give you feedback. You’ll be surprised how much this can help you to improve the product.’

The 10 finalists were:

adtronic — a mobile advertising application.
VingCard Elsafe — a hospitality security system using Near Field Communication (NFC).
emoze — a Push mobile e-mail application.
fring — a mobile internet community application.
Global Video Hub — an application for playing, downloading, storing, and sharing videos.
HappyWakeUp — a smart alarm clock.
Locify — a location-aware-services application.
UbiSafe — a location-tracking application.
WeFi — a community database of Wi-Fi hotspots.
YandexMaps — location-based and real-time traffic information.

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