A new dedicated awards ceremony for mobile application development and design – The Appys – will take place in Dublin in October.
The Appys will reward best practice in this already established and high-growth field.
Entry to the Appys is open to app developers, app development companies, digital advertising agencies, traditional agencies, private companies, the public sector agencies and brands. If you have developed, or invested in the development of an app, you are invited to enter.
Entry forms and publicity for the awards will be distributed in the coming weeks and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, 28 October, at The Gibson Hotel, Point Village, Dublin.
The awards are the brainchild of Digital Times magazine and Alchemy Event Management and the media partner will be Independent.ie.
Smartphones in Ireland
There are more than 300,000 iPhones are in the Irish market alone, as well as tens of thousands of other smartphones across all app platforms (Apple, Android, Java ME, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian and BREW).
“The app development industry is rising and rising fast,” says Stephen Conmy, editor, Digital Times. “In the fragmented digital information age, the app industry has already established itself as a very useful, influential, innovative and lucrative media sector. This year, €6bn will be spent on apps worldwide, with this figure rising to an estimated €18bn by 2012.
“A staggering 4 billion (plus) apps have been downloaded worldwide in 2010 alone, and when the iPad and all the other tablet computers hit the market, app development will become one of the most important areas of content creation in media, publishing and advertising,” Conmy said.
The judging panel for the awards will also be announced in the coming days.
“Being one of the first publishers in the world to roll out a paid-for app, we are delighted to be supporting The Appys,” said Aisling Nagle, marketing and promotions manager, Independent Digital.
“We fully recognise the importance of the app as a new communications channel and we are delighted to encourage excellence, innovation and creativity in this new and exciting field,” Nagle said.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Des Dorris, Alchemy Events; Stephen Conmy, Digital Times; and Edward Conmy, Digital Times
