Two of the applications developed in Ghana that made it to the finals of the Android Developer Challenge for the sub-Sahara Africa region when it was announced in April 2011 didn’t make it to the dais when judges announced the winners Tuesday September 13, 2011.
The two applications in the Productivity, Tools, Local and Geo category are UniDayz and Esoko.
UniDayz is an application that helps university students to better manage and prioritize their course work, and Esoko is a market application for agricultural goods that allows users to track inventory and find the best price for their products.
The winners of the competition are two Kenyan developed applications and one from Nigeria.
The Nigerian application that won in the Entertainment/Media/Games category is Afrinolly. According to the organisers, Afrinolly is an application that brings African movies to your pocket, allowing you to watch movie trailers, read entertainment news and gossip, track celebs, listen to music and share it all with your friends.
Kenyan developed application which won in the Social/Communication is Olalashe (which means “brother” in Maasai). The application, according to the organisers is a geo-alert application that can help you communicate when you’re in trouble, through a widget that can send your location and a pre-set message to your ‘In Case of Emergency’ contacts with the push of a button.
Shoppers’ Delight, also from Kenya is the other winner in the Productivity category. It is a shopping application that allows shoppers to compare product prices across different area supermarkets. The app also helps shoppers discover bargains and relevant sales, and access maps and health information.
Each winner, the organisers say, will be awarded $25,000 to help them build and grow their business, and will receive additional mentoring from Google employees to help them make their app even better.
Organisers indicated that the judges also gave honourable mention to finalist apps Rainbow Racer and Wedding Plandroid; the developers of those apps will each receive $5,000.
All the three winning apps, both honorable mention apps, and many of the finalist apps are or will soon be available on Android Market, Google announced.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi