Some new categories added, some old ones gone
The GSM Association has fired the starting gun on entries for its awards, always given away at a glittering boozeathon at the 3GSM World Congress. This year the awards categories have been moulded into seven main categories, which encompass many of the existing awards with a few new ones added, notably in the content and entertainment fields and network services and product area.
The full category list is available at the link below, but the main changes are that 2005’s Applications, Content and Services category has been split into two and expanded, with four awards for content/ entertainment services and two for eneterprise/messaging applications.
The handsets and devices/network solutions category has also been split. Handset vendors can vie for either best GSM phone, or best 3GSM phone. Equiment and software vendors can have a pop at last year’s best billing/customer care product, but also at four new categories rewarding the best Radio Access product or service, best service delivery platform, best network quality initiative and best roaming product or service.
The awards for marketing have been trimmed from two to one – for the best broadcast commercial (best marketing campaign bites the dust), and the Mobile in the Community awards have gone from three categories to one umbrella award.
There is also one new category entirely, the mobile innovation forum award, aimed at smaller and start-up companies.
The expansion in certain areas of the awards shows which areas the GSM Association thinks deserves recognition and, of course, which areas they think they will attract high entries and sponsorship. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and it helps us see what the bodies at the industry association think are the hot tickets this year. You couldn’t really argue with their choices, and if the awards can help bind in many of the content and entertainment providers and partners to the Congress in a wider way, the GSMA certainly will have achieved one of its strategic aims for the Congress as a whole.