20fourLabs nabs top prize
2009-12-08 12:15
Cape Town - 20fourLabs, a division within Media24's digital arm 24.com, walked away with the top honours in the Nokia Africa Calling All Innovators app competition.
Their entry, Afridoctor, was awarded the $85 000 first prize at a Johannesburg awards ceremony on Monday night, beating 125 other entries from developers all over Africa.
The runners-up are: Roach Game - South Africa by Breakdesign (in second place), Sasol e.Birds by Coolideas (3), MrSNAKE by Simon Botes (4) and Thumbtribe widget by Thumbtribe (5), LiveMobile by LiveMobile (6), Countdown 2010 by Christian Reeve (7), Surfing Safari by Aqua Online (8), Turn Left at the Barrel by Turn Left at the Giraffe (9) and Mall-Buddy by Paul Hinrichsen (10).
The Nokia app competition, launched in July this year, called for developers to generate applications and solutions relevant to South African and African consumers.
20fourLabs' winning entry Afridoctor is Africa's first personal mobile health clinic, turning the mobile device into a powerful first aid information kit, a
doctor-location service, and an emergency distress notifier.
Its revolutionary "SnapDiagnosis" system allows users to submit photos
of their ailments and remotely receive advice from a panel of
professionals.
Afridoctor's mapping feature also enables users to
find doctors, clinics and all health industry related services within
their proximity.
'Fantastic features'
"We received a number of top quality entries and the winners have invested a significant amount of time and thought into their applications," says Helen Jarvis, services marketing manager at Nokia South Africa.
"We look forward to working with the South African and African developer community going forward to continue providing the best mobile applications to consumers on the continent and worldwide."
Says Bradley Voges, Business Development Manager for BWCOM in 20fourlabs: "[When Nokia first announced the competition], teams within 20fourLabs and BWCOM were established and many brilliant ideas were put forward on Alchemy, our internal idea voting engine. The ideas were then voted upon and in the end the Afridoctor application was chosen."
Within three weeks the app was designed, built and jam packed full of information from content partner - Health24.
"Thanks to a small team of specialists we were able to not only meet the tight competition deadline but add a couple of fantastic features that were thought up along the way," says Voges.
Huge demand for basic health info
Afridoctor has enjoyed huge success since its official launch into the Nokia OVI app store. After 3 weeks of being available in the app store, Afridoctor has been downloaded over 5 500 times from users around the world.
The application fills a void that currently exists in many African countries where there is a huge demand for basic health related information yet this information is not very reliable or easily accessible.
"Thanks to all those within 20fourLabs/BWCOM for your help in designing and building the product. Thanks also go to Danie Pauw and the Health24 team for partnering with us on this project and supplying key content.
"It is a great honour for us to win the Nokia application competition and that is testament to BWCOM and 20fourLabs's ability to innovate and rapidly execute brilliant ideas in limited time frames." says Voges.
There are already serious discussions underway to expand Afridoctor and ensure the application reaches those who need it most. Development has already begun to port Afridoctor to all capable Nokia handsets to ensure mass adoption.
- Blueworld Communities and 20fourLabs is part of 24.com, a Naspers subsidiary.