NAVTEQ, a global provider of digital map data for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions, announced at a press event in Sydney, Australia that the company will bring a dedicated NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge event to Asia-Pacific (APAC) to further facilitate the participation of developers across the region. Registration for APAC participants officially begins October 2007 and an awards ceremony announcing APAC winners will be held at CommunicAsia in June 2008 in Singapore.
Since its inception in 2003, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge has become the premier program for the development of cutting-edge location-based services for wireless applications. NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge contestants typically range from start-up developers hoping to launch their first commercial application to established companies pushing the limits of their creativity.
This annual competition has helped eight previous participants receive venture capital funding and nine past winners have launched commercial applications on major wireless carriers, including Verizon Wireless and Sprint. In 2007, NAVTEQ and its sponsors awarded a prize pool collectively worth almost $2 million.
Interest in location-based services in Asia continues to surge as map coverage expands throughout the region. NAVTEQ already has map coverage in countries such as Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Also fueling the growing interest of LBS in Asia is the vast number of wireless developers in the region. According to an Evans Data Corporation study in the fall of 2006, nearly 40% of the world’s wireless developers reside in the APAC region.