The GSMA today announced the winners of the Asia Mobile Awards 2010, which were held at Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong. The award winners were revealed by Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA and Shi Lirong, Director and President of ZTE at the Mobile Asia Congress Networking Party and Awards Celebration – sponsored by ZTE – held on Wednesday 17th November. The GSMA also announced the winners this year’s Embedded Mobile Module Competition.

The Asia Mobile Awards were created by the GSMA to showcase the diversity of mobile content, products and services across the region. This year’s awards focused heavily on developments in the mobile application market, and the GSMA worked with mobile analytics firm Distimo to compile app store data for leading platforms such as Apple iOS, Android, Nokia, BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows Mobile across 27 countries in Asia to select the winners for the five app-related categories. The Best Device award was selected from nominations of the top-selling handset manufacturers across Asia Pacific and, along with the Best App award, was judged by a panel of key industry analysts and journalists.

“The importance of and growth in the mobile applications market has been on display throughout the Mobile Asia Congress, from our developer-focused App Planet event, to our thought leadership conference programme, to the Mobile Asia Awards,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer at the GSMA. “These awards illustrate the diversity of choice for mobile users across Asia, in areas such as entertainment, games, business and lifestyle, and reflect the uptake of innovative new smartphones and the ever-increasing richness of mobile services and content. Congratulations to all the winners.”

The Asia Mobile Awards 2010 winners are:

Top Entertainment App

• IMDB Movie Database – IMDB       

Top Games App

• Angry Birds – Rovio/Clickgamer

Top Lifestyle Apps

• Around Me – Tweakersoft      

Top Business App

• Documents to Go – Premium Office Suite –  DataViz Inc

Top Overall App

• Angry Birds – Rovio/Clickgamer

Judges’ Choice – Best App

• Google Maps – Google

Best Mobile Handsets/Device

• iPhone 4 – Apple

Also announced were the winners of the GSMA’s 2010 Embedded Mobile Module Competition.  The Embedded Mobile Competition was launched at last year’s Mobile Asia Congress to encourage the innovation of embedded mobile devices and services in key vertical sectors such as health, utilities, automotive and consumer electronics, helping to increase volumes of connected devices on a global scale.  The Embedded Mobile Module competition is focused on identifying best-in-class embedded modules for both 3G and 2G applications that are commercially available or will be in the near future.

Five of the world’s leading M2M embedded module suppliers participated in the Embedded Mobile Module competition, with 18 modules entered across the two categories. Representatives from mobile operators, such as Vodafone, Orange AT&T, Telecom Italia, KT and Smart Communications, who formed the steering committee, were looking for solutions with the best application functionality, innovation and the potential to drive economies of scale.

The winners of the 2010 Embedded Mobile Module competition are:

3G category

• Qualcomm for IEM6270 – 3G module

2G category

• Sierra Wireless for AirPrime SL6087 – 2G module

“The race this year was very close with most of the vendors having a rich set of development and application functionality. We are recognising Qualcomm’s IEM6270 in the 3G category for its strong mix of programmability and add-on features like GPS in a very light and small module. The AirPrime SL6087 2G module by Sierra Wireless demonstrates a strong overall package with rich functionality and very attractive pricing suitable for multi-application verticals,” said the judging panel.  “It is also important to highlight that the introduction and use of the single chip modules adopted by many of the companies competing has helped to push down the cost and size of embedded mobile modules. We are delighted to see a trend of decreasing costs, increasing functionality and the proliferation of new and innovative connected devices. Our congratulations to the winners and to all those who took part.”

For more information on the GSMA’s Embedded Mobile initiative please visit: http://gsmworld.com/our-work/mobile_broadband/embedded_mobile/.