Orange Jordan honors the winners of the Orange Apps Awards

Orange Jordan recently held an award ceremony for the winners of “Orange Apps Awards,” which was launched mid of May 2011 for the entire MENA region.

The ceremony, which was held at the Sheraton hotel, was attended by Orange Jordan’s CEO Nayla Khawam, together with a number of senior managers from the company and several officials from its affiliates in the competition. The event was also attended by representatives of various media, in addition to the competition’s finalists, the winners of whom were later announced amidst mounting excitement.

 “The competition was a success story for us and for those who participated in it, especially given the enthusiasm that was shown by the participants and the remarkable Jordanian and regional talents that have emerged,” commented Khawam. “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who participated in this event, whether they were lucky enough to win or not.

For this contest, Orange allocated more than $50,000, which were distributed across five categories: students, community, entertainment, business and Orange employees category. Each category accorded three prizes, with $5,000 for the first place winner and $3,000 and $2,000 for the second and third place winners respectively. Moreover, the company will collaborate with its partners to provide the winners with business and technical support, in addition to marketing their applications through the Orange App shop which is a channel that Orange can provide applications acquired from different sources..

As for the winners, Adel Ammari’s “Amman Stock Exchange” app won in the business category, joined by Noha Mansour’s “AKLATY” app in the entertainment category, Samer Abu Daher’s “Mayyel Notes” in the students category and Rania Badr’s “ADSL Troubleshooting Guide” in the Orange employees category. Mohammed Diab from Egypt received the $10,000 grand prize for all categories for his “Follow Me” app.     

The contest sought to give technology enthusiasts the opportunity to showcase their talents in developing Arabic language applications geared toward mobile phones. The company collaborated in this regard with specialists from Tech Jordan, Mays Al Ward, Nokia, Microsoft Innovation center, Princess Sumayya University for Technology, Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Tasmimi Company. The competition enjoyed a massive turnout by various skilled developers, programmers, engineers, researchers, startup company owners and innovative students.  

All applications submitted to the Orange Apps Awards had to be developed in Arabic, with English being a plus. According to Orange Jordan, this aims to enhance the availability of Arabic content, which based on statistics forms only 1 percent of global content volume.