Research In Motion (RIM) has announced the winners of the BlackBerry EMEA Innovation Awards 2011.

Now in its fourth year, the awards are the highlight of the annual BlackBerry EMEA Alliance Summit, recognising and rewarding organisations from within the  BlackBerry Alliance Programme in Europe, Middle East and Africa that have delivered compelling, value-added applications and services to customers using the BlackBerry platform.

Each of the seven category winners demonstrated excellence by creating innovative applications that provide tangible benefits to public or private sector organisations, SMEs or consumers, a statement from the company said.

This year saw the introduction of a new category specifically to recognise solutions for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The People’s Choice award is also a new category, the statement said.

Voted for by fans and followers via the BlackBerry Facebook and Twitter channels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the People’s Choice award recognises the most popular free app available on BlackBerry App World.  

Winners were selected by an independent panel of eleven judges comprising of industry experts, journalists and customers in other categories.

Alec Saunders, VP developer relations at RIM, said: “The EMEA Innovation Awards were created to honour the exceptional achievements of those partners who have utilised the BlackBerry platform to create best-in-class apps with real benefits to businesses, the public sector and consumers.” – TradeArabia News Service