The unique and first “Critical App Challenge for the Middle East and North Africa”, organised by Airbus, has ended with an award ceremony at the Gitex exhibition, being held in Dubai, UAE, this week.

Gitex Technology Week, a major information and communications technology (ICT) trade fair, which opened on October 14 will conclude tomorrow October 18, at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

An independent jury picked four outstanding applications for the Tactilon Dabat which were developed for public safety and industries in the Middle East, said a statement.

Among the 40 companies which participated in the online contest, the companies BRAQ Aerospace (Saudi Arabia), Delta Smart Technologies (Turkey), epic.blue (Belgium) and Steerpath (Finland) presented the most convincing app solutions, it said.

The challenge was to find the best digital communication solutions for various industry staff, policemen, firefighters or paramedics who need specialised communication solutions for their regions in North Africa and the Middle East. The applications can be used on the Airbus device Tactilon Dabat, the world´s first smartphone and Tetra radio in one, it added.

A total of 40 companies proposed new ideas to Airbus within a limited amount of time in the past weeks. They had to hand in the proofs of concept of their product idea. The independent jury consisted of seven representatives from the telecommunication companies Nedaa and Moteco, the Dubai Police, Dubai Civil Defence, and Airbus. Airbus supported and initiated the entire event.

Selim Bouri, vice president and head of Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific, Secure Land Communications at Airbus, said: “This pioneering App Challenge for this vast region triggered a spirit of ingenuity in the app developer community.”

“Our company provides the right platform to gather those ideas and bring them to the regional public safety markets,” he added.

In any case, those who enrolled for the Critical App Challenge gained joint cooperation possibilities with Airbus. They will be registered for the SmarTWISP program if they meet the Airbus prerequisites. Those who are interested in becoming a partner of this program can check out the “Secure Land Communications” website.

They will find a starter kit which helps make new mission-critical applications. Once approved for a free membership, subscribers can access guidelines, tools and the application programming interface (API). Furthermore, members benefit from special training, tools, and reward scheme, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service