MWC 2011: Global Mobile Awards 2011 Roundup

With this year’s edition of the Mobile World Congress, which happened in Barcelona, drawing to a close, the organizers wanted to go out with a bang. Cue the Global Mobile Awards 2011, with Apple’s iPhone 4 and HTC picking up big honours, and I think you could call it Mission Accomplished.

Oh, it went out with a bang all right

Apple usually doesn’t participate in industry-wide shows like the Consumer Electronics Show or indeed the MWC, but that didn’t stop the judging panel from giving the iPhone 4 the Best Mobile Device award. Here’s what they had to say, “Great screen, sharp design, fantastic materials, and phenomenal ecosystem for app developers. In a tight race, the iPhone 4 built on the success of its predecessors to set the pace for smart phones.”

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HTC picked up Best Mobile Manufacturer, continuing from where they left off last year, where the HTC Hero won the Best Mobile Device award. “This company has built its market presence from nowhere, with fresh branding and marketing and a strong portfolio of devices across many platforms. In particular, it has proven an exceptionally popular and enduring phone manufacturer. With great communication and good customer service, this is a well-deserved award.” Speaking about the Desire HD, the judges had this to say, “The HTC Desire set the bar for Android phones across much of the world in 2010. Packed with great features, this is an enduring product that has performed consistently well.”

App of the Year on the Apple Platform predictably went to Rovio’s addictive Angry Birds, and I’m pretty surprised and thankful it didn’t win on every platform it was released on. “This is the 50 million plus-selling app that catapulted the benchmark for mobile gaming higher than ever, it is innovative too in terms of in-application monetization,” said the judges.

Research in Motion’s own BlackBerry Messenger won App of the Year for BlackBerries for being “The benchmark for real-time, mobile instant messaging application that offers deep integration with the phone’s address book and media gallery.” Google picked up the accolades for Google Maps, as it was award App of the Year on the Android Platform, thanks to being “one of the most frequently updated applications on the market, and the latest iteration has made it simply one of the best mobile apps out there today”. Last, but not the least, Zum Zum won the App of the Year on the Nokia Platform for its performance in the Ovi Store.

Pretty worthy winners, I’d say. What do you think?