Archive for the ‘awards’ Category
March 10, 2010
The Contest: MySpace Developer Challenge.
The Objective: bring home the gold for “Most Innovative MySpace Integration on Mobile.”
Mission: Accomplished.
Today MySpace announced the winners of the MySpace Developer Challenge, and iSkoot was among the victors. The competition, announced in early January, aimed at inspiring the developer community to build cool new on- and off-site integrations with MySpace.
We submitted iSkoot’s Kalaida Platform, which has made it possible for us to include a real-time, media-rich connection to MySpace in our newest suite of mobile products, including AT&T Social Net, Social Beat on Verizon, T-Mobile Social Networks, and iSkoot Notifier on T-Mobile UK. Users can see friends’ status updates, access their inbox, see profile and status comments and take advantage of the full set of MySpace messaging and response options, like sending messages and posting profiles comments.
iSkoot is incredibly excited to have been honored with “Most Innovative MySpace Integration on Mobile.” We’d like to extend both our gratitude to MySpace and our congratulations to the fellow MySpace Developer Challenge winners:
- Best New MySpace App: Paradise Paintball
- Most innovative use of the Real-Time Stream API: GeoMeme
- Most innovative use of the Open Search API: Social Mention
- Most innovative use of the Photos API: Browser Not Included
Nice work all! We’ll look for you again next year.
Posted in: New Things, awards | No Comments
Tags: Kalaida Platform, MySpace Developer Challenge
November 9, 2009
Last Friday, GSMA announced 10 finalists for the Americas Tournament of this year’s Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition, and iSkoot is on that list!
The GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Grand Prix competition aims to spotlight promising entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized companies that bring innovative new products and services to market. GSMA teamed up with US-based investment bank Rutberg & Company to host the competition’s Americas leg (Rutberg does mergers & acquisitions advisory and private capital raising services for companies in wireless and digital media), and the next round is coming up fast!
On iSkoot’s Grand Prix to-do list:
1. Shine up our presentation skills (after a nonstop Fall tour ’round the trade show circuit, I think Mark’s still good and loose.)
2. Head to Redwood City on Dec 1st
3. Go toe-to-toe with 9 other Americas finalists in a round of presentations to a panel of industry experts!
Two of the ten finalists will go on to compete in the final round of the tourney at GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next February. Only one company will bring home the title! Can iSkoot go the distance? There’s only one way to find out. On to Redwood City!
Wish us luck, people. This is the big time. 
Posted in: New Things, awards, iSkoot Appearances | No Comments
Tags: finalist, GSMA, Mobile Innovation Grand Prix, Mobile World Congress 2010
September 21, 2009
As we signposted a few weeks back, trade show season in the wireless biz is really starting to crank; here at iSkoot, we’re prepping to pack up and ship out yet another iSkoot executive to get in the mix and spread iSkoot’s unique brand of wireless wisdom.
iSkoot Senior Director of Marketing Jake Martin heads to the VON Conference and Expo in South Beach, Florida this Wednesday to participate in a panel entitled Smartphones on Steroids: Netbooks and the Next Device Wave. The panel kicks off at 10am EST (that’s this Wednesday, Sept 23) and promises to deliver a full 50 minutes of industry expertise on smartphones, laptops and how the marriage of the two is changing consumer/provider experience.
The official blurb from VON:
“As mobile phones get smarter — with multicore processors, larger screens and improved graphics — laptops are getting thinner, becoming hyper-connected “netbooks.” This convergence is shifting the way people compute and connect - and the way service providers relate to their customers and generate revenue. This session will explore the effects of the smartphone/netbook convergence on service providers’ business models, network planning and marketing.”
The discussion promises to be an interesting one, and if Jake’s past speaking record is any indication, audiences can look forward to a pretty rollicking good time.
You’ve got two days. Get yourself to South Beach!
Posted in: Management Team, Releases, awards, iSkoot Appearances | No Comments
Tags: Jake Martin, netbooks, smartphones, VON
March 3, 2009
The INQ Social Mobile, the latest mobile brainchild from Hutchison Whampoa, took home the Gold at this year’s Mobile World Congress for Best Mobile Handset. That’s the second Global Mobile award in a row for Hutch, whom you all may remember snagged the Silver Medal last year for the 3 Skypephone.
What the judges had to say:
“The INQ represents a significant step towards the mobile device as a social networking hub and also represents superb value for money. Its approach to the deep integration of services such as Facebook outshines that of much costlier smartphones, and it presents a compelling proposition by treating the phonebook as the focal point of the device. With its ingenious ability to transform from phone to 3G modem by simply plugging it into your USB port, the INQ¹ delivers data services to the mass market and for an affordable price.”
This also happens to be the second year running that a handset featuring the iSkoot-powered Skype solution nabbed the industry’s highest international accolades. Coincidence?! C’mon now…In fact, INQ Mobile was kind enough to give iSkoot a ‘lil gratitude shout out on the company site. Thanks for the nod guys!
Of course, INQ Mobile’s award-winning handset happens to rock for a sweet set of features in addition to mobile Skype - this mighty little phone also has Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Last FM and mobile email built right in. The phone is on the market today in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and INQ Mobile promises to start stocking more shelves throughout Europe and Asia soon. Keep an eye out!
And a big congrats to INQ Mobile. Job well done, guys.
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, New Things, awards | No Comments
Tags: 3 Skypephone, Global Mobile Awards, INQ, Mobile World Congress
January 2, 2009
What a difference a year makes.
2008 was an action-packed ride here at iSkoot, and with the New Year having hastily arrived (already?), it is–of course–only fitting to take a look back at just how far we’ve come in the last 365.
Last January, we were just 2 months into celebrating 3’s UK launch of the iSkoot-powered 3 Skypephone - the first dedicated mobile Skype handset of its kind in the world. In the months that followed, the little Skype handset that took the UK by storm set off for the rest of 3’s global territories, launching in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Hong Kong, Ireland, and Italy. And somewhere along the way, the Skypephone picked up a Global Mobile Awards Silver Medal for Best Mobile Handset of the Year too.
While our success with the Skypephone picked up steam, iSkoot welcomed some fresh faces to the team as well - most notably our tireless CEO Mark Jacobstein, who’s brought to this outfit a lengthy track record of serial entrepreneurship and an exciting new vision for our company. Yosi Shaulson and Jim Hudak came aboard not long after, as VP of Finance & Ops and VP of Business Development, respectively.
Days later, we celebrated Yosi and Jim’s arrival alongside the renewal of our longtime partnership with Skype, which - in the wake of the 3 Skypephone’s resounding success on 3 continents around the world - awarded iSkoot exclusive rights to sell Skype-branded mobile products in territories spanning the rest of the globe - including South America, Africa and Europe. After all, we wouldn’t want Jim and Yosi to think we didn’t have enough for them to do, now would we?
With new leadership, renewed vows with Skype and a fully-integrated mobile device under our belts, the team decided it was time to make for sunnier pastures. We relocated our US headquarters from Cambridge, Mass to San Francisco - though not before iSkoot for Skype picked up a MITX Technology Award for Best Mobile Technology.
After getting settled in our West Coast locale this summer, iSkoot’s dreams for expansion kicked into high gear. In early September, we acquired social network IM client Social.IM as part of our scheme to grow beyond mobile VoIP to offer live-connection mobile solutions for a broader spectrum of web services. Of course, this didn’t meant our mobile VoIP efforts were becoming a thing of the past - just ask the folks at 3, who launched a shiny new incarnation of the iSkoot-powered Skypephone, the Skypephone S2, or the folks at Android, who featured iSkoot for Skype in the Android Market when Android’s inaugural device, the T-Mobile G1, hit shelves across the US this fall.
Having closed our Series C funding in November, everyone at iSkoot is now gearing up for a very big year ahead. And if 2008 was any indication - a very big year it will be.
Thanks so much to everyone who helped to make our success this past year possible - especially our iSkoot for Skype and Skypephone users around the world. We look forward to delighting you with a whole new generation of game-changing mobile products in the coming months.
Until then, our very best wishes for 2009. Happy New Year, All!
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, Management Team, T-Mobile G1, awards | No Comments
Tags: 3 Skypephone, Android, Jim Hudak, Mark Jacobstein, MITX Technology Awards, Skypephone S2, Social IM, T-Mobile G1, Yosi Shaulson
June 4, 2008
Great news: Last night iSkoot for Skype earned the 2008 MITX Technology Award for outstanding innovation in the “Mobile” category!
The MITX Technology Awards, presented by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, recognize “innovative technologies developed in the New England area, as well as the individuals and organizations responsible for driving these advancements.”
The award was presented last night during a swanky dinner at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, just up the road from the original iSkoot headquarters - where it all started 3 years ago. 
A big thanks to MITX for this fantastic honor!
Posted in: awards | No Comments
Tags: MITX Awards
May 29, 2008
The BREW 2008 Developer Awards were last night, but sadly iSkoot didn’t end up taking home the gold. In the running against just 2 other finalists for BREW’s “Best Community/Social Networking Application” award, our iSkoot for Skype solution was bested by loopt - a mobile social network that uses location-based services to let users map where their friends are.
Fair play, loopt. And while the gang here at iSkoot is (admittedly) a tad disappointed, we’re not inconsolable…
We have, after all, laid claim to loopt’s former EVP. Perhaps we’ve mentioned him: Mark Jacobstein?
So a big congrats loopt, Match.com for mobile, and to all of this year’s BREW 2008 Developer Award nominees and winners.
Posted in: awards | No Comments
Tags: BREW 2008 Developer Award, Loopt, Mark Jacobstein
May 20, 2008
They say good things come in threes! iSkoot has just gotten its third developer award finalist nomination of the season - this time for a BREW 2008 Developer Award in the “Best Community/Social Networking Application” category. And we’re one of just three finalists in our category! Coincidence?
The BREW 2008 Developer Awards features seven total award categories of commercial and pre-commercial BREW applications and services that represent the best and brightest in wireless data innovation. Winners in each of the categories will be revealed and honored in a special ceremony next Wednesday, May 28 at the BREW 2008 Conference in San Diego, CA.
The iSkoot-powered 3 Skypephone, which utilizes iSkoot technology integrated into the device’s BREW OS, has already picked up a Global Mobile Award Silver Medal for “Best Mobile Handset.” Will lightning strike twice? We’ll find out soon enough! Stay tuned.
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, awards | No Comments
Tags: 2008 BREW Developer Awards, 3 Skypephone
May 13, 2008
On the heels of our recent selection as a MITX Technology Award finalist, we just got more good news: iSkoot for Skype has been selected as a finalist in the “Best Handset Application” category of the 2008 Mobile Content Awards. Exciting stuff!
The MCA’s are open to entrants from every part of the value chain, from operators and handset manufacturers, through to software developers, with entries invited from around the world.
The winners will be announced at the Mobile Content Awards Presentation Ceremony and Gala Dinner on June 19th at the Kingsway Hall Hotel in London’s Convent Garden.
We’ll keep you posted - One more reason to stay tuned to the iSkoot Blog!
Posted in: awards | No Comments
Tags: iSkoot for Skype, Mobile Content Awards
May 7, 2008
Great news! iSkoot has been selected as a finalist in the MITX Technology Awards’ “Mobile” category.
The MITX Technology Awards competition recognizes innovative technology products and services developed in New England. Within the mobile category, finalists are identified creating technologies (component-level breakthroughs, new devices, network advances) or services that support mobile workforces or customer applications on wireless networks.
That would be us! Awards are announced at the 2008 What’s Next Forum and Technology Awards Ceremony in our old stomping ground, Cambridge, Mass on June 3. Stay tuned!
Posted in: New Things, awards | No Comments
Tags: iSkoot for Skype, MITX Awards
