Etisalat riding high on winning the prestigious mBillionth Award South Asia 2011 for Etisalat App Zone, a winner in m-Infrastructure category (out of the 11 categories) is gearing to empower Sri Lankans to earn upper bracket incomes while facilitating (digital) entrepreneurship, officials said. “This mobile platform allows users to browse and download applications, but also creates an opportunity for the Sri-Lankan mobile application developers to create, test and sell their own unique applications.
Upto now Etisalat has about 200 such applications,” Riyaaz Rasheed the Deputy CEO of Etisalat told the Business Times.
He said that Etisalat started this initiative one year ago in a bid to empower the masses to earn money thorough building such applications. “About 5,000 people, amongst them university students, etc are interested in getting into developing mobile applications. The particular application is owned by the one who builds it,” he explained. He added that the builders earn 70% of the revenue generated through these applications.
Mr. Rasheed said that there are some telcos up for grabs at 'decent prices', but Etisalat doesn't see value in them at this time. "At the right time we will go for acquisitions or mergers," he added.
Elaborating on Appzone, he said that it helps all of Etisalat’s subscribers, irrespective of phone type – smart, feature or basic phones – to enjoy mobile apps pertaining to- News, Sports, and Business, Games, Health and much more.
Mr. Rasheed added that m-Infrastructure category looks to recognize mobile and telecommunication technology, and platforms that allow for easy, cost effective solutions, content and applications to be delivered to the masses, as well as technology and platforms that assist application developers and content providers in reaching said masses.
Etisalat created the AppZone created together with hSenid Mobile which is also the first of its kind to be offered by a Telco in Sri Lanka. And some of the application developers who used the AppZone to develop Apps were also nominated for the award.
During the mBillionth Award 2011 processes, 250 nominations were received from all south Asian countries competing in 11 categories which included m-Infrastructure, m-Inclusion, m-Business, m-Commerce/Banking, m-Health, m-Environment, m-Travel & Tourism, m-News and Journalism, m-Governance, m-Education & Learning, m-Entertainment and m-Culture and Heritage. So far, mBillionth has been able to create a platform that can connect stakeholders on common grounds in terms of mobile applications and services reaching out to millions towards digital inclusion.
Mr. Rasheed said that there are some telcos up for grabs at 'decent prices', but Etisalat doesn't see value in them at this time. "At the right time we will go for acquisitions or mergers," he added.
Elaborating on Appzone, he said that it helps all of Etisalat’s subscribers, irrespective of phone type – smart, feature or basic phones – to enjoy mobile apps pertaining to- News, Sports, and Business, Games, Health and much more.
Mr. Rasheed added that m-Infrastructure category looks to recognize mobile and telecommunication technology, and platforms that allow for easy, cost effective solutions, content and applications to be delivered to the masses, as well as technology and platforms that assist application developers and content providers in reaching said masses.
Etisalat created the AppZone created together with hSenid Mobile which is also the first of its kind to be offered by a Telco in Sri Lanka. And some of the application developers who used the AppZone to develop Apps were also nominated for the award.
During the mBillionth Award 2011 processes, 250 nominations were received from all south Asian countries competing in 11 categories which included m-Infrastructure, m-Inclusion, m-Business, m-Commerce/Banking, m-Health, m-Environment, m-Travel & Tourism, m-News and Journalism, m-Governance, m-Education & Learning, m-Entertainment and m-Culture and Heritage. So far, mBillionth has been able to create a platform that can connect stakeholders on common grounds in terms of mobile applications and services reaching out to millions towards digital inclusion.
|
E-mail
