Vodacom has kicked off the South African leg of the international App Star challenge, pitting the skills of local app developers against those from Egypt, India, Kenya and Tanzania. In addition to competing on behalf of South Africa, the top local developers also stand a chance of winning their share of $30 000 total prize money, as well as the ongoing income from sales of their app on Vodafone’s App Store.

The winners of the international round will take home $12 000, $6 000 and $4 000 for the first, second and third prize respectively, along with consolation prizes such as tablets as well as smartphones worth $3 000.

As of today, app developers can register on Vodacom’s website to take part in this competition.

App Star challenge entries must be linked to one or more of the following areas: health, education, local entertainment, games and utilities. Apps have to run on either Google’s Android mobile operating system or Java. All entries must be received by 23:59 on 25 October 2013.

Judging for the South African leg commences on 22 November, with the developers of the two best apps being sent to Nairobi, Kenya to compete in the international competition taking place on 11 December.

Additional incentive for coming up for new and exciting ideas

Besides the App Star challenge, Vodacom also launched an App Idea contest where any developer is able to submit their smartphone app ideas that relate to health and safety, mobile commerce, or environment and agriculture. Winners of this competition will take home the latest smartphones. Entrants can submit their application ideas on the mobile operator’s website.

Portia Maurice, managing executive for Digital Services at Vodacom said: “This is the 3^rd year that we’ve run this challenge and South Africa has great potential to bring the top honours home. All we need to develop successful apps are brainpower and ingenuity, something we’ve got in abundance.”

Maurice added that, “This is a great chance to hone your skills, marry technology to a useful purpose, win great prize money, and most importantly gain recognition. We’re looking forward to being blown away by this year’s entries and showcase to the world the apps that are being developed through the Vodacom Developer Programme.”

In related news, Vodacom also recently announced its new value added service (VAS) for prepaid customers dubbed My5, which offers one hour of talk time, unlimited texting to any network, as well as data allocation to prepaid clients for as little as R6.