Business & Money | Wednesday 17 October, 2018 11:00 am |

 The unique and first “Critical App Challenge for the Middle East and North Africa” has ended with an award ceremony at the Gitex exhibition in Dubai this week. An independent jury picked four outstanding applications for the Tactilon Dabat which were developed for public safety and industries in the Middle East. 

 

Among the 40 companies which participated in the online contest, the companies BRAQ Aerospace LLC (Saudi Arabia), Delta Smart Technologies (Turkey), epic.blue (Belgium) and Steerpath (Finland) presented the most convincing app solutions.   

 

The Challenge was to find the best digital communication solutions for various industry staff, policemen, firefighters or paramedics who need specialised communication solutions for their regions in North Africa and the Middle East. The applications can be used on the Airbus device Tactilon Dabat, the world´s first smartphone and Tetra radio in one.

 

40 companies proposed new ideas to Airbus within a limited amount of time in the past weeks. They had to hand in the proofs of concept of their product idea. The independent jury consisted of 7 representatives from the telecommunication companies Nedaa and MOTECO, the Dubai Police, Dubai Civil Defence, and Airbus. Airbus supported and initiated the entire event. 

 

“This pioneering App Challenge for this vast region triggered a spirit of ingenuity in the app developer community. Airbus provides the right platform to gather those ideas and bring them to the regional public safety markets,” says Selim Bouri, Vice-President and Head of Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific for Secure Land Communications at Airbus.

 

In any case, those who enrolled for the Critical App Challenge gained joint cooperation possibilities with Airbus. They will be registered for the SmarTWISP programif they meet the Airbus prerequisites. Those who are interested in becoming a partner of this program can check out the “Secure Land Communications” website.

 

They will find a starter kit which helps make new mission-critical applications. Once approved for a free membership, subscribers can access guidelines, tools and the application programming interface (API). Furthermore, members benefit from special training, tools, and reward schemes.