‘‘Rufoof’’, an e-bookstore application developed by Flagship Projects with a wide Pan Arab repertoire of books, was among the top winners at the World Summit Award Mobile (WSA-Mobile) 2011 competition.

The contest attracted 460 entries from 105 countries.

Multi-channel and multi-device content for savvy citizens and creative use of biometric, wireless and conventional services are the hallmarks of the stellar products which are announced as this year’s winners of the UN based World Summit Award (WSA), said a statement.

Rufoof from the UAE has made it to the group of outstanding best-practice developments and therefore declared WSA winner, it said.

As part of the UN activities following the World Summit on the Information society, the WSA recognizes the outstanding achievements of content designers and application producers in eight categories. It started in 2003 and will continue until the UN review in 2015.

“All those winning the WSA, from Colombia to India and from Ghana to Lithuania to the Arab world, can be proud as they have shown that great digital contents are produced all over the world and as they have won against over 460 other competitors for this price,” stated Prof Dr. Peter A Bruck, chairman of the World Summit Award Board of Directors.

Shadi Hasan, managing director of Flagship Projects, said: “We are delighted to win this UN-endorsed award in a competition involving 460 global entries. What makes us even more proud is the fact that we represented the UAE in this global contest. This world-class mobile application is one of the prominent Arabic apps on the app store.”

Reading experience with Rufoof is very easy. Users can go to the application and view a wide range of book titles in different categories so they can download books and have them available even when the device is offline, Hasan said.

Another feature of the application is reading through bookmarked pages, search and change the font size as well as changing the colour of the shelves.

The language of Rufoof is 70 per cent Arabic and 30 per cent English. The platform is compatible with iPhone, iPad and will be soon on many more other devices.

Hasan added: “Books at Rufoof are much cheaper than the hard copy versions with lots of free contents. One of the dynamic interactive features of Rufoof is the simplicity in using content. Moreover, books are carefully picked, monitored and controlled by Flagship.” – TradeArabia News Service