Safaricom and Vodafone have launched the Safaricom AppStar Challenge 2013 to be contested across countries in Africa and Asia, aiming to provide a local platform for all developers in the region to showcase on a larger platform.
The challenge, which will earn the winner KSh1 million (US$11,400), is open to contestants from Egypt, Kenya, India, South Africa and Tanzania, and unlike the previous contest this year’s challenge will include a fresh look and richer features.
“You made AppStar 2012 a great success. That has encouraged us beyond measure to kick start AppStar 2013 with a fresh look and richer features,” said Vodafone, majority shareholder in Safaricom, in a post.
“For example, we have introduced an ‘Ideas Contest’ for non-developers to submit their app ideas (not that we block developers from submitting ideas but you know, we hope developers would have already built it!!).”
Just as with the previous contest, the Safaricom AppStar Challenge 2013 will have two phases where participants will be required to first compete with developers in their country.
The top two developers from each country will then compete at an international stage, where apps will be presented and demonstrated. The final winners are announced during the international contest.
Vodafone is yet to reveal the location for the international contest.
Finance app Pesa Tracker by Vincent Maraba, Health app (Mimba Bora) by Marcel Ogweno and Nduru App, by Thomas Kioko, are previous winners of the challenge.
