October 30th, 2013 
DCA 
Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Arab world fuelled by the demands of young people for jobs and economic opportunity, Silatech and the Applied Innovation Institute, in partnership with Ooredoo, have launched the first Arab Mobile App Challenge. Teams of up to six members, under 35 years of age, will work to develop applications (known as “apps”) for mobile phones that address needs in the education, health, entertainment or employability/entrepreneurship sectors. The winning teams will receive a prize of USD 50,000, USD 30,000 and USD 20,000 respectively for first, second and third position.
The main objectives of the competition are to introduce young Arabs to the concept of entrepreneurship and the path to business start-up, as well as opportunities for enhancing employability skills particularly relevant to the tech space. Teams will go through an acceleration process, opportunities for multiple workshops, and also be assisted by an experienced mentor who will provide coaching and advice in how to turn good ideas into viable businesses. Starting as a pilot challenge this year in Tunisia, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the intent is to roll the contest out to the entire region in the future.
The global mobile app market is growing at very high speed and the Middle East mobile apps market is in line with this especially due to a high regional uptake of mobile phones. Though the region is well placed to benefit from mobile app opportunities, the number of commercially successful Arabic apps has been relatively few. The Arab Mobile App Challenge is a step toward developing the region’s underutilized potential in this regard.
Silatech and the Applied Innovation Institute are the founding partners of the Arab Mobile App Challenge, and Ooredoo has joined forces in the early stages as a Platinum Regional Sponsor supporting this initiative. The Regional Partners include Microsoft, Pearson, Yahoo, Tam Projects, Wamda, MIT Enterprise Forum, Potenial, and ArabNet. Country hosts are the Queen Rania Centre for Entrepreneurship (Jordan), Sup’Com (Tunisia), International Medical Centre and Saudi Telecom (KSA), The Hub (UAE) and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. by ooredoo.com
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