LONDON, Sept. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA today announced that the Global Mobile Awards 2014 are now open for entry. The awards, which honour excellence and innovation across the mobile industry, will be open for entry until Friday, 29th November 2013, with the winners announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday, 25th February 2014.

"The Global Mobile Awards recognise the world's leading mobile devices, services, apps and technologies and this year, with a host of diverse categories reflecting the latest mobile trends, growth sectors and opportunities, we expect the competition to be even stronger than ever," said Michael O'Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA.  "Arguably the most established and respected awards programme in mobile, the Global Mobile Awards at Mobile World Congress offer an outstanding platform to spotlight the innovation that drives our industry."

The Global Mobile Awards for 2014 be presented in the following categories:

• The Connected Life Awards
• Best Mobile Services
• Social & Economic Development
• Apps of the Year
• Best Mobile Handsets & Devices
• Best Mobile Technology
• Government Leadership Awards
• Outstanding Achievement Award

The GSMA has introduced key enhancements to the 2014 awards and in total, 38 awards will be presented over the eight categories, with six new awards to showcase evolving trends across the mobile ecosystem. Among the developments for 2014, the 'Best Mobile Handset and Devices' category will now have two smartphone awards, the first for high-end smartphones and a new award for sub-$150 (wholesale) smartphones, reflecting the rapid growth of the smartphone market overall and recognising the positive impact of affordable devices.

The GSMA has also enhanced the 'Best Mobile Technology' category with the introduction of two new awards, including the 'Best Solution for Growing Smaller or Independent Networks', which will recognise technology solutions that serve smaller, independent network operators, and the 'Best Mobile Identity, Safeguards and Security Products/Solutions' award that will focus on the concept of mobile identity, a new growth area for physical, digital and online authentication and identification of users. This category also includes awards for innovation across infrastructure and cloud-based technologies, as well as an award for 'Outstanding LTE Contribution', amongst others.

Inaugural awards have also been introduced in two further categories. The 'Social and Economic Development' category will include an award for innovative mobile solutions that help to drive the accessibility and ease of use for the physically or mentally disabled and senior mobile users. This year, the 'Apps of the Year' category will recognise achievements for music, gaming or TV apps with the 'Best Entertainment App' award, and the award for 'Smartphone App Challenge' will be presented to the solution that best enhances the user experience by making efficient use of network resources.

The awards will also highlight the importance of the Connected Life, with a category dedicated on the convergence of mobile with key vertical sectors, showcasing the best mobile products and services for automotive, education, health, mobile money, publishing and smart cities, including a specific award for mobile-enabled consumer electronic devices.

In addition, the government awards programme has been expanded into a suite of four awards and will be presented on Monday, 24th February at the Ministerial Programme at Mobile World Congress. Recognising world-class leadership, the programme will include the 'Government Leadership Award', 'Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award', 'Economic Policy for Sustainable Mobile Growth Award' and the 'Connected Government Award'.

The Global Mobile Awards 2014 are open to companies across the entire mobile ecosystem and may be entered online; a full list of categories, deadlines and award criteria can be found at www.globalmobileawards.com. Selected awards will be open to nominations from judges or by an independent panel of experts and will not be open for online entry. This year, the submission of video to support entries is welcomed and encouraged by the awards judges. Entries for the Global Mobile Awards close on Friday, 29th November 2013 and the GSMA will announce the shortlist of nominations for each category in late January 2014.

The awards will be judged by independent experts, analysts, journalists, academics and, in some cases, mobile operator representatives. In addition, the winner of the award for 'Outstanding Overall Mobile Technology – The CTOs' Choice' will be selected by a panel of industry-leading CTOs from the worldwide operator community.

For further information on the Global Mobile Awards 2014 or if you would like to become a sponsor, please contact the GSMA at awards@globalmobileawards.com. The Mobile World Congress 2014 will be held 24th – 27th February at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. For more information, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators with more than 230 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations in industry sectors such as financial services, healthcare, media, transport and utilities. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo. 

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com or Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com.

SOURCE GSMA