The very best mobile apps of 2012 were celebrated last night in an event hosted by Dermot O’Leary and sponsored by Carphone Warehouse – Europe’s largest independent mobile phone retailer. The ‘Appy Awards’ marked successful and popular apps in twelve different categories.
Shortlists were drawn up by industry experts and the winners chosen by public vote. More than 115,000 people voted earlier at appys.com.
The Apps aim to recognize the excellence in apps already in use by millions of people and to bring to attention new, innovative apps that many may otherwise remain unaware of. Mobile phone apps are everywhere nowadays, as are smartphones. Over 25 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store for use on Apple’s iPhones and iPads and almost 15 billion have been downloaded on Google’s OS to date. And these numbers are just going to continue to rise.
The Appys this year saw the emergence of a few trends too. While radical innovation does come from comparatively small developers, giant companies such as Google and Facebook, continue to push innovation in mobile apps. Facebook beat other social networks, most notably Twitter, to be crowned the best social and messaging tool. Facebook is rumored to be expanding even more and by next year perhaps a Facebook app is not all we might see, but a Facebook phone as well. As for Google, Google Maps were named the first travel. The accurate service takes away the need for people to ask for direction, allows users to find exactly where they are, plot a route, and view real-time transport information as well. Both iOS and Android OS use this service. Google too continues to grow and build more apps and develop services, the most recent of these being Google Drive.
Angry Birds beat other immensely popular games like Football Manager, FIFA 12, GTA III and Fruit Ninja to once again be crowned the best game. Last year, also the first time that the Appy Awards were held, saw Angry Birds winning as well. The game has been downloaded over 700 million times on mobile platforms by now and shows no signs of slowing down. Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, even released a new title called Angry Birds Space earlier this year. The pull of Angry Birds remains its simplicity, ease of playing and the short amount of time it takes to reach next levels. Even the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, claims to have completed every level of the game.
YouTube became a double winner, taking away both the best music and best celebrity & entertainment awards and beating other music services such as Spotify in the process.
Sky Sports News took the prize for the best sports app, second year in a row and well-deservedly so. Sky Sports News was also named the Judges choice.
A complete list of winners is as follows:
Judges choice: Sky Sports News
Best game: Angry Birds
Best news & weather: BBC News
Best social & messaging: Facebook
Best food & cooking: Domino’s Pizza
Best money saving: Groupon
Best sport: Sky Sports News
Best fashion & shopping: eBay
Best photography & video: Adobe Photoshop Express
Best celebrity & entertainment: YouTube
Best health & well-being: NHS Direct
Best music: YouTube
Best travel: Google Maps
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