Zelfi is the Winner of Google's Android Developer Challenge

05/13/2008 - On the second weekend in May, Google announced the winner of the Android Developer Challenge. Among the 50 fortunate winners of in each case 25,000 dollars is Zelfi AG, Mainz. With "JOYity", the company created an innovative platform for mobile entertainment.

1788 projects from over 70 countries participated in the Google Android Developer Challenge. The competition, organized by Google and Open Handset Alliance, awards innovative software for future android cell phones. Google provides in total 10 million dollars of prize money for the winners. The money can be won in different rounds.

Andreas Berg, founder and CEO of Zelfi AG, is especially happy about the fact that winning in the first round means to have the opportunity of taking part in the second round: "During the second round, 20 of the 50 participants will be awarded with in total 3,75 million dollars. Among the 50 winners of the first round, there are many top quality applications, and we will undertake strenuous efforts to optimize our platform for the second round".

Android mobile phones are not yet available on the market. They will be available from the second half of the year on, and then will compete with the Apple iPhone and similar devices that have been announced to be on the market soon. The fact that cell phones are becoming multimedia allrounders is the common feature of all these new cell phone platforms. Through novel operation concepts and a large display, complex applications as well can be used easily.

The concept of "JOYity" is based on the new abilities of Android cell phones. The virtual world of cell phone games is being combined with the real world. Andreas Berg: "We bring cell phone game players from the sofa to the street. JOYity makes players find solutions for different problems. In order to accomplish that the player has to go to certain places, and to communicate with the team players via cell phone and face-to-face. Teams play against each other, and in addition to creativity and quickness, knowledge of the place can be a decisive advantage".

The experience of Zelfi AG in the field cell phone games shows that not only the very young target group is interested in cell phone games. "On our website www.zelfi.com the average age of the players is between 25 and 35", says Andreas Berg about the target group of Zelfi AG. "We expect JOYity to appeal to the same age group, and to add to our other branch of business".

The results of the second round are supposed to be announced at the end of July.

The Zelfi public limited company is a start-up located in Mainz/Germany being actively involved in the fields of Mobile Marketing and Mobile Entertainment by providing software products. The development and the service of a Mobile Marketing platform is our core business. This innovative technology-platform forms a nodal point of mobile phone users, mobile phone software developers and advertisers.
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