BARCELONA, Spain, February 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- GSMA also reveals winners of 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition

The GSMA today announced the winners of the 14th Annual Global Mobile Awards at a gala dinner at the National Palace in Barcelona, hosted by the rising star of comedy, Michael McIntyre. The ceremony, one of the highlights of the Mobile World Congress, the leading event for the mobile communications industry, also revealed the Global Champion of the GSMA's 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition.

Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA said: More than 450 companies spanning internet, finance, advertising, music, television and gaming submitted entries for this year's Awards, reflecting the diversity and breadth and depth of our industry. Even in uncertain economic times mobile is seeing continued growth, with more than 4 billion mobile connections globally, and this growth is driven by innovation in new services, applications and ever richer mobile content. Our congratulations to the winners and all those who participated.

A spectacular evening that showcased the very best in the mobile world, the event included a special guest appearance from producer, artist and front man of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am, who performed his latest single ahead of his keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress on Thursday (Mobile Backstage, 19th February), and was followed by Jamie Cullum, the Grammy, BRIT and two-time Golden Globe nominated jazz artist, who played an exclusive set in front of more than 900 senior executives and mobile industry leaders.

THE 2009 GLOBAL MOBILE AWARDS WINNERS Best Mobile Game Winner: Gameloft - Real Football 2009 Highly Commended: Digital Chocolate - AvaPeeps: FlirtNation Best Mobile Music or Video Service Winner: BBC iPlayer on Mobile Best Mobile Advertising Service Winner: Turkcell - Tonla Kazan Best Mobile TV Service Winner: MobiTV - MobiTV Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service Winner: Vodafone - Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited Best Mobile Internet Service Winner: Nokia - Nokia Sports Tracker Best Mobile Money Service Winner: Safaricom and Vodafone - M-PESA Best Mobile Handset or Device Winner: INQ - INQ1 Highly Commended: Nokia - Nokia E71 Highly Commended: T-Mobile - T-Mobile G1 Best Broadcast Commercial Winner: KT Freetel - 'Show is ... ' Best Mobile Brand Campaign Winner: R/GA London - Nokia Urbanista Diaries Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development Winner: Nuance Communications - Airtel-T9 India Consumer Vernacular Messaging Campaigns Best Network Technology Advance Winner: Nokia Siemens Networks - Flexi Multimode BTS Software defined HSPA/LTE Best Service Delivery Platform Winner: NewBay Software - LifeCache Social Networking Solution 2.0 Best Billing Customer Care Solution Winner: Expert System - COGITO Answers Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough Winner: RIM - BlackBerry Storm 9500 SurePress Screen The Green Mobile Award Winner: Smart Communications - Alternative Power for Cell Sites program GSMA's CEO Award for Outstanding Environmental Contribution Winner: Nokia Government Leadership Award Winner: The Government of France GSMA Chairman's Award Winner: Research in Motion (RIM)

Mobile Innovation Global Award Champion Named

The EMEA leg and final stage of the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition also took place this week at the Mobile World Congress, where 15 nominees competed in five categories for the chance to pitch their innovative products and services against finalists from the Asia, Americas and Virtual legs of the competition for the title of 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Champion.

THE 2009 MOBILE INNOVATION GLOBAL AWARD CHAMPION Winner: Cootek, China (Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology) THE 2009 MOBILE INNOVATION GLOBAL AWARD COMPETITION - EMEA TOURNAMENT Global Finalist: Advanced Receiver Technologies, USA Global Finalist: Intivation, Netherlands And the five category winners are: Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology -- Intivation, Netherlands Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform -- Sunbay, Switzerland Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market -- WorldMate, USA Most Innovative Consumer Application or Service -- Mobile Nordic AS, Norway Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up -- Advanced Receiver Technologies, USA

Mobile Innovation Grand Prix

The GSMA's Mobile Innovation initiative has also launched a new Awards format as part of the 2010 Global Mobile Awards. The Mobile Innovation 'Grand Prix' will showcase promising entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized companies developing and introducing innovative products and services that seek industry support in order to achieve market deployment. The first leg of the competition, the EMEA Tournament, will take place at the World Innovation Summit in Barcelona in June, and entry opens on 25 February 2009.

For more information on the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix please visit: http://www.mobileinnovation.org/awards.

The Platinum sponsor of the Global Mobile Awards is Qualcomm, and category sponsors include: A.T. Kearney (Green Mobile category), Purple Labs (Best Mobile Handset category), Movius (Marketing Promotion category), HiT (Mobile Entertainment category), and the Government of Catalunya (Mobile Innovation category host sponsor).

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites more than 750 of the world's mobile operators, as well as 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry. For more information, please visit: http://www.gsmworld.com.

Daniel Lowther, +44-7747-636-687, or Richard Fogg, +44-7887-845-236, both of GSMA, press@gsm.org