Apps for household solar-system monitoring and communication for disabled win top prizes in Ericsson Application Awards 2013

• App developed in UK to help disabled communicate wins first prize in company category
• Household-solar-system-monitoring app developed in Portugal wins first prize in student category
• 1,000 voters, 192 teams from 52 countries

Today, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) announced the winners of the 2013 Ericsson Application Awards at a ceremony at the Ericsson Studio in Kista, Sweden.

The winner of the student category was Portugal's GreenSpark, which offered a solution based on energy efficiency with truly global reach. The UK's TboxApps was the winner in the company category; the team's user-friendly solution solves a major problem.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the competition has been held. This year's theme was Apps for City Life; it was about creating ways to connect people, things and places to empower individuals and society. Students and small- and medium-sized enterprises from anywhere in the world had been invited to submit Android apps.

In all, 192 teams (more than last year's 143) from 52 countries took part.

Four finalist teams from the UK, Poland and Portugal showcased their apps before an expert jury that declared a winner in each of two categories: one for students and one for companies.

This year, the participating teams were vying for a total of EUR 80,000 in prize money: EUR 25,000 for each first prize; EUR 10,000 for each second; and EUR 5,000 for each third.

Winning company-category entry, Predictable from the UK's TboxApps, uses a mouse emulator to enable contactless use of the Android platform, giving people with disabilities a voice. The app will learn based on the user's use pattern, and draw from a phrase bank to give the user instant access to messages so they can quickly get help, interrupt a conversation or join in a discussion.

The jury's justification for picking TboxApps was that the team had created an app that enables anyone to control a computer or tablet with even just the slightest movement of the head, opening up the world to users who would otherwise not interact digitally in the way most of us take for granted.
 
Team member Rebecca Bright from TboxApps says: "Winning this award is a fantastic honor, and we appreciate the recognition. This will drive us to continue to innovate in this important area."

Winning student-category entry, GreenSpark - from the Portuguese team of the same name - reduces the complexity of maintaining and monitoring a household solar-power system through a plug-and-play device using cloud-computing technology.

The jury's justification for picking GreenSpark was that the team has focused on the performance of solar cells at a time when energy consumption and energy efficiency is increasingly in focus, and has produced an app with obvious benefits to users and all stakeholders in the energy business.

Team member Poan Shen from GreenSpark says: "We are very happy to have been selected among the finalists. It has been a pleasure and an honor."

Event host and Ericsson CMO Arun Bhikshesvaran says: "The Ericsson Application Awards are a great way for us to engage with global talent, encourage, spot and reward innovation. The competition stimulates the ecosystem and is a way for us to explore new and creative ideas that can bring the Networked Society to life."

The judging of all entries started in March when 1,000 users from eight major cities as diverse as Sydney, Johannesburg and New York took part in app evaluations.

NOTES TO EDITORS

GreenSpark team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh8x354Xyyw
TboxApps team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLW-Xl0vtHU
Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is a world-leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscriptions.

We are more than 110,000 people working with customers in more than 180 countries. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2012 the company's net sales were SEK 227.8 billion (USD 33.8 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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