Mobile Apps Innovation is Alive and Well in the Philippines 232.0
Innovation is done by people and for people.
When young people innovate and compete in the newest technology for mobile phone applications where the Philippines is at the leading edge in the world, I can only feel optimistic that technical progress is alive and well in the country. The souvenir photo above shows the contesting teams and judges; obviously, one can tell who is which from the picture.
I was invited to be one of four judges at the MobileXtreme, the BIG APPS Competition, today. There were four finalists whose mobile application entries “were able to operate under the emulator” as tested by the technical partner for the contest, Megamobile.
The Contest. MobileXtreme is a search for innovative mobile apps in games/fun/entertainment, enterprise/personal productivity, and cause-oriented applications where entries are working prototypes in J2ME platforms. This mobile app contest is sponsored by leading technology innovation companies in the Philippines
- Ayala Technology Business Incubator (TBI) of the Ayala Foundation. Incubation is a proven way to promote product prototyping and new enterprise nurturing. Ayala TBI operates four technology business incubators in the Philippines, including one in Cebu, under its Foundation’s Center for Social Development;
- IPVG, the leading public technology investing company in the Philippines that includes e-Games and Megamobile; and,
- GlobeLabs, the applications development arm of Globe Telecoms, another Ayala company.
The sponsors have the technical and commercial capability to complete the prototype development and bring the finished mobile app to market.
The finalists have been screened twice for the concept and for the working prototype. They are guaranteed cash prices and more importantly the opportunity to make real money from commercializing their initial prototype.
The contest criteria are as follows:
- Functionality; mobile apps prototype runs successfully and with ease on Java mobile phones. It does what it is supposed to do;
- Uniqueness in its applications, doing something out of the common;
- Creativity in design and in the use of available technologies (UI, graphics, etc.); and,
- Usefulness in addressing users’ needs and problems and with high potential for adoption by customers.
They mobile apps as presented are also expected to answer the intangible qualities:
- What is its magnet – why will it attract the user?
- What is the anchor – what will hold the user to it?
- Does it have a profit engine for the user – will it make the relationship pay?
- How is it spiced up for a satisfying customer experience?
The four finalists. The four finalists below matched the criteria and answered the four questions above.
The Sponsors and Judges. The deliberations were complex being at the interface of meeting customer needs and at the same time feasible within the actual technical constrains of the existing telco infrastructure.
The four judges were required to reach a consensus instead of just voting for the winners. The four judges were:
- Professor Dickie Gonzales, Competition Director, from AIM and DLSU and a veteran organizer of technology innovation and business plan competitions including PESO;
- Greg Igaya, Head of Future Applications of Globe Labs,
- Manny Fernando, President and COO of MegaMobile, a mobile apps development Megamobile is the fusion of one of the best Filipino mobile technology provider and solid content development team in the industry today; and,
- Yours truly, SYNTHESiST, who is an adjunct faculty at the Asian Institute of Management and consultant in innovation, entrepreneur management development, and change management.
Deliberation for consensus building also included Michi Barcelon, Lead Manager, and Rhia Ramirez, Consultant, both of the Ayala TBI and Erica Cortez of IPVG.
The Deliberation. Unfortunately, only the sponsors can announce the winners. But the deliberation process was very detailed according to the criteria and, because of the requirement of consensus, took some time to resolve.
It was an exhilarating experience to me because the discussion – with among the most knowledgeable people in the industry – spent a lot of time and effort to resolve the winners while insuring the best interface of basic human needs under he constraint of real, new and innovative technologies is achieved.
The experience left me optimistic about progress in the country.
As I said above, innovation is done by people and for people. It is interesting to note that a scholar said almost the same thing in 353 AD, when writing as technology, had been successfully used in the past 500 years to unite a people..
Lantingxu by Wang Xizhi
Things do change, only our feelings linger… What we used to be fond of will become the past instantaneously… Life and death may be merely an illusion… Time has changed, yet the desire to express the feeling is the same. Those in the future shall get what I mean…
- Wang Zizhi, 353 A.D.
Writing, at the time of the great emperor Shih Huang Ti who built the Great Wall, is a technology diffused throughout and united China to this day. I interpret Wang’s thesis written in 353 AD to say that whatever the tools, i.e. writing as technology, people are the subject and object of technology as innovation.
Social enterprise. Finally, Ayala TBI is a social enterprise under the umbrella of the Ayala Foundation designed to achieve triple bottom line of profitability, equity, and sustainability. It is interesting to see its possibilities in an area of high technology.
Note: Please revisit SYNTHESiST for a succeeding post focused on Ayala TBI Network. Or better still, subscribe with your email address to be effortlessly informed of its publication.
