Thursday, September 13 2012

WERE you a part of history last year? Can you count yourself among the millions across every continent that downloaded one or more of the top ten mobile apps across all platforms? According to mobile analytics app company Distimo, the top ten app downloads of 2011 included three versions of Angry Birds, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, iBooks, Google Maps, Fruit Ninja and Talking Tom.

Communications technology is rapidly and irrevocably changing how we organise our lives. The combination of smart devices, high speed mobile networks and apps is putting unprecedented information and control in the hands of individuals. The challenge for an economy like Trinidad and Tobago is really how to make this development work for us.

Smart devices and mobile networks are nothing without apps. Apps give users their daily dose of news, gammes, entertainment, social network feeds, business info, healthcare support, things to buy, things to sell, places to go, places to avoid and, oh yes, work, made possible by a range of productivity programmes.

Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update for 2011–2016 cites, as the number one contributor to the explosion of mobile data, the proliferation of high-end handsets, tablets, and laptops on mobile networks. With these, the leading categories of apps propelling global data use were Data; File sharing; Video; VoIP; Gaming and machine to machine (M2M).

It is clear from this that TT has not even scratched the service of making local apps do more for individuals and businesses, but there are some that have risen to the challenge. Triniberry is one of a few local entrepreneurs that are aggressively pushing the development of local apps to tip the scale away from us being purely consumers of apps.

From the Triniberry blog pages we learn that recently Khafra Murray (Creator of TriniBerry.com) was adjudged the winner of the Caribbean Association of National Telecoms Organisations’ (CANTO) second i-Create e-Content Mobile Apps Competition 2011-2012. The annual competition which was launched in November of 2011 rewards the most creative and innovative mobile applications developers in the Caribbean. The competition was staged in CANTO member countries and received numerous submissions.

Murray led the pack with his winning submission titled: “Hott Foot” under the Mobile Recreation and Entertainment category. The term ‘‘Hott Foot’’ is a Trinidad and Tobago local parlance for one who perpetually seeks some form of adventure/entertainment outside of the home. The name immediately identifies the app as a source of things to do and places to go when one is looking to get out of the home.

The application serves as a categorised and chronological listing of events taking place in Trinidad and Tobago. It covers more than just parties and lists community and sporting events, public holidays, performances and plays among others. The app will also be launched on Android, iPhone and Windows Phone in the near future. Triniberry has also developed a number of other local apps including a mobile portal; T and T Doubles Directory, Cinema Guide, Inter-Island Ferry Sailing and bmobile Bfete 2k12 Carnival App.

The second place in the CANTO competition went to Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) out of Antigua with their submission ‘Antigua Directory’, targeted to the tourism industry. The creation of the directory application is in line with APUA’s recent rebranding efforts, which seek to realign APUA as a lifestyle brand. The application makes finding information through the directory efficient and accessible to the consumers who have become reliant on using their Android phones.

Achmed Neijhorst, Managing Director of iFrontier an ICT company based in Suriname placed third with the “activity App”. The ‘‘Activity App’’ is a mobile application where citizens and visitors of that country/area can view all leisure activities for the upcoming week. The application uses the GPS of the Smartphone to plot all activities on a map.

In fourth place was UWI Jammers out of Trinidad and Tobago with their entry titled Caribcultivate. This mobile-web application allows the users to leverage the potentially ubiquitous Android enabled phones with existing web technologies in order to access and provide agricultural information to a new generation of technology savvy entrepreneurial farmers.

The submissions were judged in the following categories ranging from relevance of the application, quality and comprehensiveness, ease-of-use, functionality and design, quality of design, value added through interactivity and multimedia, quality of craftsmanship and strategic importance to the region among others. There were three (3) experts in the field of ICT and telecommunications sector used to judge the completion from Barbados, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Download the HOTT FOOT app for Blackberry and Android smartphones at these Links

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/search/triniberry/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Chephren+Media+Ltd and find out more about what Triniberry is up to at http://www.triniberry.com