Unlimited music service TDC Play won the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) honor for best music service at the global mobile trade body’s ‘Meffys’ awards ceremony.
TDC Play, which is available in Denmark, is powered by European mobile music provider 24-7 Entertainment, which has offices in Germany, the U.K., Spain and Denmark. The Danish telco’s service bundles unlimited music with existing mobile and broadband subscriptions.
The Meffys, in association with Nokia for the third year running, were held in London last night (June 23). Winners at the sixth annual award came from the U.S., Britain, Denmark, Finland, India, Norway, Russia and Turkey.
The BBC’s BBC iPlayer on Mobile won the award for TV and video service. It offer’s a catch-up service via mobile for BBC broadcasts in the U.K.
“In these times of economic uncertainty, MEF is proud to celebrate a $32 billion industry whose relevance and focus continues to inspire innovation and growth,” said Rimma Perelmuter, MEF executive director, in a statement. “The 2009 Meffys winners are a testament to the industry’s robustness and the central role that mobile is playing in engaging and entertaining consumers around the world.”
Other winners included Nokia for its new app service the Ovi Store and Dolby Laboratories, who picked up the quality of experience award for Dolby Mobile, which aims to offer a richer listening experience for premium mobile phones.
The Meffys outstanding contribution award went to Dr Antero Taivalsaari, principal Investigator, Sun Microsystems Laboratories and Mark VandenBrink, Motorola fellow and VP. The MEF credits the duo with laying the foundations for today’s mobile applications business.
The pair played a key role in the mobile version of Java: Taivalsaari was behind the technology while VandenBrink of Motorola persuaded the industry to adopt it as a standard.
Over the past decade, more than 2.5 billion handsets have been shipped with Java support, under every brand and in every region of the world, according to the MEF.
“Back in the late 1990s, when Antero and I first met, we had no idea that a chance meeting over lunch in Cupertino would result in the first cross-platform application environment in the mobile industry,” said VandenBrink in a statement.
“Ten years later, what once invoked incredulity is considered commonplace – now mobile phones are selected, at least in part, by their ability to run applications and to host content. I would like to thank the MEF Board for this award and to say that I am doubly honored: not only to have been recognized as a global thought leader and pioneer, but also to have been associated with Antero for these last 10 years.”
