Etisalat, hSenid Mobile applaud upcoming technocrats, entrepreneurs

Etisalat and hSenid last week applauded Sri Lanka’s upcoming technocrats and entrepreneurs at the AppZone Award Ceremony.

Best developers of the AppZone island-wide intra-university and inter-university competitions were recognised and rewarded at the ceremony.

Following the launch of Sri Lanka’s pioneering Mobile Applications Eco-System by Etisalat and hSenid mobile, the AppZone mobile applications competition kicked off in September 2010, giving university students the opportunity to submit applications and compete in one of the most rewarding competitions to ever hit the Sri Lankan mobile sphere.

Since Etisalat partnered with hSenid Mobile in launching the country’s first mobile application development platform, users were able to browse and use applications, in addition to significantly creating the opportunity for professional and non-professional Sri-Lankan mobile application developers to create, test and sell their own unique applications. As a following phase to this unique setting of the stage for all budding Sri-Lankan mobile software developers to experience rapid development and commercialisation of their mobile applications,  teams from Etisalat and hSenid held seminars and workshops in all leading graduate institutes in Sri Lanka, including the Universities of Colombo, Moratuwa, Kelaniya, Peradeniya, SLIIT and APIIT. The sessions focused on explaining the procedures, prospect and potential in terms of opportunity and revenue saw impressive response with a better than expected turn out. It was indeed a unique business proposal which opened up a new breed of entrepreneurs amongst local application developers enhancing their presence in the region while enabling them to earn substantial revenues off their applications.

Supplementing these ‘Developer Community’ initiatives, this project targeted IT students as well as the IT savvy general public to bring out the very best of their creativity. The university level contests held internal competitions in the respective universities where the top three performers won cash prizes and certificates. The internal winners were then eligible for the all island inter-university competition for a sensational grand prize of an Apple i-pad. In addition to trophies and certificates, the top three application designers took home to their respective universities a significant library fund, courtesy Etisalat and hSenid mobile.

Meanwhile, encouraged by the success of the intra-university and inter-university competitions, Etisalat and hSenid mobile have opened this competition to the technology savvy general public as well. Application developers can visit the Etisalat Mobile App Forum (www.appzone.lk), use the development tool kits provided to develop application, test it with the simulators provided and submit it for approval and commercialisation. This initiative is aimed at getting the non-professional application developer on board and will see five content winners walking away with a victorious trophy, certificate and a Blackberry device.

Etisalat CEO, Dumindra Ratnayaka applauded the winners as upcoming technocrats and entrepreneurs full of talent and prospect, “The Etisalat App- Revolution was groundbreaking in its entry to Sri Lanka’s mobile sphere and we are excited to have discovered such talent and skill within our up- coming App developers and are happy at being able to pave the way for taking creations from one’s home to the global platform.

“This competition was a motivator for developers to be a part this trailblazer applications revolution.” CEO of hSenid mobile Dinesh Saparamadu said, “this Eco-system was one which provided incredible revenue prospects for university students as well as anyone who was interested in application development and we are on our way to creating the first Mobile Applications Millionaire!” He added, “We were very impressed by the innovation and invention came about as a result of this platform.”

Meanwhile,  Etisalat’s ‘APP ZONE,’ the first cloud enabled telco application store launched in Sri Lanka by a network operator continues to allow consumers to browse, download and utilise a wide variety of lifestyle applications, accessible to all Etisalat subscribers and compatible with all handsets.