The MTN Business App of the Year awards celebrate innovation, originality and excellence in the South African app arena and is judged by “industry veterans” like Toby Shapshak. Tech Busters caught up with the winners at the event for more.
This video first appeared on the TechBusters show on CNBC Africa, every Monday at 21h30 on channel 410 on DStv.
SnapScan, an app that allows people to pay using their smartphone, won the 2013 MTN Business App of the Year as part of an impressive showing of locally-created apps.
The competition, which is in its second year, celebrates South African-made apps and had 250 entries in a variety of consumer and enterprise categories.
SnapScan, from a small Stellenbosch tech startup FireID, won the HTML5 category in an event held in Johannesburg on Tuesday night.
Unlike last year, which was dominated by a single app from FNB, this year saw a significant showing across the categories, demonstrating that South Africa’s nascent app’s industry is very healthy.
Broadcaster DStv’s tablet app, which allows for streaming of movies and TV shows, was the winner in the consumer category for Apple’s iOS. The Android consumer app went to Nedbank’s app suite.
In the enterprise categories, MarkItShare, which caters to estate agents, won the Android category and the aptly named .comm Telco Data Visualizer from Deloitte Digital won for iOS.
PriceCheck, which recently won the International App of the Year at the BlackBerry Live conference in May, won the BlackBerry category; while the best Windows Phone app went to KidsAid, which gives emergency medical advice for children and potential accidents.
The most innovative app when to Bookly, made by digital agency Native, that allows people to read books on so-called feature phones via messaging service Mxit..
The judge’s favourite was GautrainBuddy, which won garage app of the year and was written by youngster Theuno de Bruin and is far superior to the official app at using this public transport service.
Last year’s inaugural winner, FNB’s new tablet app, didn’t win but was featured in the top three finalists in two categories.