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O2 launches iPhone app contest
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 21st July 2009
O2 is hoping to innovate its way to the top of the market once rivals are allowed to sell the iPhone, and has £10,000 to give to the best O2-themed iPhone app.
As reported over on V3.co.uk, the UK arm of mobile giant O2 is running a contest throughout August which looks to introduce a neat, preferably O2-themed application into the iPhone marketplace. With suggestions on the official site ranging from “an interactive O2 coverage map” - which would appear to be manageable as a Google Maps mashup – to “an app that records any sleep-talking you do,” and the promise that contestants are “free to enter any kind of iPhone app you like” there's certainly scope for innovation.
That said, O2 is putting heavy emphasis on apps which promote its services or improve the lot of its customers specifically, stating that the “key criteria for the winner will be an app that can help build a lasting relationship between O2 and its iPhone customers.” Accordingly, suggestions which tie the company's existing offerings – such as a package which automatically checks the status of your O2 wired broadband connection, or syncs the iPhone to the company's Joggler device – are the most likely to walk away with the prize.
The move comes ahead of O2's exclusivity deal with Apple expiring, and it's a clear sign that the company is attempting to innovate its way to the top of the pile: when rival mobile providers have the ability to compete on price with iPhone packages, O2 will have either perform some major trimming on its margins or offer something unique to the market.
The competition is open to all UK residents aged over 18 and with an Apple Developer Program Portal account with at least 95 free device slots for the use of competition judges – interestingly, made up of the company's iPhone customers rather than employees.
Does the thought of a £10,000 top prize get your head swimming with O2-themed ideas for iPhone apps, or are do you think that's something of a cheap price for the application that's likely to keep O2 on the top of the iPhone pile? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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I have signed up to become a judge though - would not mind some free apps!
Shame that the iPhone SDK is only available to Mac users or there will be a larger bunch of people able to enter.
Just been announced Apples profits are up 15% again. So that would take into account all the iPhones that have been sold AND all those lovely Macs that have been sold to hopeful App makers. They really hit the jackpot with the iPhone!
Isn't the whole point of having the 95 free slots on a developer account to allow the judging to take place without actually putting the app on general release and getting it past Apple's mysterious criteria for the app store? Having said that though I think it would be hilarious if the winning app wasn't allowed onto the full App store, £10,000 down the drain for O2 and not even a decent explanation from Apple as to why they won't allow it to be released. :D