The 17th Annual Global Mobile Awards were announced at the last day of the MWC conference and the winners were adjudged from more than 600 entries and judged by more than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics.
At the awards, Samsung was adjudged the Manufacturer of the Year having “success across the board with progress in every category,” according to the GSMA, “and outperforming rivals in a tough market” and its Galaxy S II smartphone was named the Best Smartphone beating the likes of iPhone 4S, the HTC Desire S, the Nokia Lumia 800, and Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The judges described the Galaxy S II as “a phenomenal success around the world, this has outperformed all its Android rivals and demonstrated the maturity of the ecosystem.”
The Best Mobile Tablet award was given to iPad 2 as a product which “defined the market” and it was “a unanimous choice for a tablet that has defined the market and dominated sales” as described by the judges. Although Android tablets started gaining momentum by the end of last year and Kindle Fire managed some good sales capturing approx 16 % of the global Tablet sales in a market dominated by 59 % iPad sales but with iPad 3 just round the corner with Apple confirming March 7th as the day of its next gen iPad launch, the iPad will not be leaving the domination anytime soon.
Others to win awards were:
- Best Feature Phone or Entry Level Phone: Nokia C3-00
- Best Mobile App for Consumers: Angry Birds
- Best Consumer Mobile Service: Google Maps
- Best Mobile App for Enterprise: Citrix Systems
- Judges’ Choice – Best Overall Mobile App: WhatsApp
- Most Innovative Mobile App: SwiftKey
- Best Mobile Innovation for Automotive, Transport or Utilities: Ford Sync
UPDATE: The game changing camera phone by Nokia shown off at the MWC has won the prestigious award of the “Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet at MWC”. It is surely well deserved since it has simply blown all the cameraphones in competition out of the water and bringing cameras on smartphones all the more closer to DSLRs with its massive sensor.
