'Late Runner' Application Wins Alcatel-Lucent's 100 Apps in 100 Days Challenge

By Beecher Tuttle, TMCnet Contributor

Telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) on Friday unveiled the winners of its 100 Apps in 100 Days Challenge, a global competition that gave developers the opportunity to build innovative commercial applications using the company's suite of products and services.

The competition, which was launched on Sept. 1, challenged global developers to create as many applications as they could before Dec. 10 using the company's Programmable Web API repository as well as its Open API and OpenPlug services. Alcatel-Lucent asked the developers to create commercial apps for travel, healthcare, financial services, retail and media sectors.

Late last week, a distinguished panel of judges from Connected Planet (News - Alert), ReadWriteWeb and Redmonk evaluated the more than 160 applications that were submitted based on their functionality and user appeal.

After extensive deliberation, the panel awarded the grand prize to Swedish computer science student Margaryta Skrypachova for her “Late Runner" app that automatically alerts a user's social network when they are running behind schedule and may be tardy to an important meeting. The SMS and location-based app enables friends, family and co-workers to track the user and give them and estimated time of he or she's arrival.

Skrypachova was able to create the app by using Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Enablement vision, which helps facilitate the next generation of services and provides consumers and business users with richer mobile experiences, according to the company.

By earning the grand prize, Skrypachova received $10,000 and a free trip to 2011 Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona, Spain. Meanwhile, runner-up winners received all expenses paid trips to the 2011 South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. While at the conference, these recipients will have the opportunity to show off their apps at Alcatel-Lucent Developer’s Lounge.

“The 100 Apps in 100 Days Challenge highlights the wide variety of innovative applications developers and service providers can build together, while also enabling developers to discover the unique value of the network as an application platform,” Justin Tormey, Alcatel-Lucent’s Senior Manager of API Programs, noted in a release.

“Alcatel-Lucent is encouraging developers to continue to refine and pursue a commercial launch for their submitted applications. The top judged submissions will gain additional exposure to service providers and industry leaders at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in February and South By Southwest Interactive in March," he added.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard

(source: http://next-generation-communications.tmcnet.com/topics/nextgen-voice/articles/127722-late-runner-application-wins-alcatel-lucents-100-apps.htm)