The BlackBerry Achievement Awards are presented to organizations that are doing business in new and innovative ways with BlackBerry products and services. The awards were classified into five categories: App of the Year, Putting Customers First, Mobile Innovation of the Year, Making the World a Better Place, and Entrepreneur of the Year. We’re super excited to announce this year’s winners!

App of the Year winner: PriceCheck Pty Ltd.

PriceCheck Mobile for BlackBerry 10 takes shopping to a whole new level by using a BlackBerry 10 smartphone to do the legwork and price comparisons, so customers don’t have to be near a computer or store. The app accesses pricing for more than 30 million products on sale through the Internet and online stores in South Africa. Built using HTML5 and JavaScript® source code, the app is wrapped with Cascades™ and uses some feature plug-ins.

Putting Customers First winner: ING DIRECT Canada

ING DIRECT offers today’s financially conscious customers a unique mobile banking experience on their BlackBerry 10 smartphones. As well as making it convenient and secure to conduct transactions, the app focuses on increasing savings with “Orange Alerts” that push notifications to the BlackBerry® Hub when balances reach pre-determined levels. Other features such as “Small Sacrifices” encourage positive decisions about saving and financial information by sharing info through Facebook®, Twitter®, BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) and YouTube®.

Mobile Innovation of the Year winner: DIRECTV

As a large satellite TV provider in Latin America and the Caribbean, DIRECTV makes customer service for their five million customers a priority. Their app for BlackBerry smartphones will allow their 4,000 technicians to manage an entire service call and work order process from their phones, and supports Bluetooth® technology to validate and adjust satellite signal strength. The app is helping DIRECTV improve customer satisfaction, reduce paperwork and technical calls, as well as decrease return visits to customer homes.

Making the World a Better Place winner: e-Cycle LLC

e-Cycle LLC has a simple, but meaningful mandate: offer enterprises a way to retire millions of mobile devices responsibly, by protecting data security, preserving the environment, and generating buyback revenue. As a recipient of e-Stewards® certification, e-Cycle is on the frontline of ensuring that harmful, toxic chemicals from mobile devices are not sent to landfills but are instead recycled safely. Their buyback program reimburses costs for devices that can have more value in the market, which offsets the costs of a company upgrading to new devices.

Entrepreneur of the Year winner: Nobex Technologies Inc

Many BlackBerry enthusiasts are familiar with Nobex Technologies’ innovative mobile app that allows people to listen radio stations on the go and share the experience and chat with friends through BBM. Nobex Radio for BlackBerry 10 continues its inventiveness with a newly designed app. It adds podcast functionality that allows people to search and subscribe to thousands of podcasts, with notifications sent to the BlackBerry Hub when new episodes are available.

With only a few days left, we want to make sure that you have one last chance to submit an application for this year’s BlackBerry Achievement Awards, which will be presented at the BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando, Florida in May 2013.

If you haven’t yet completed your application, the deadline to do so is March 22, 2013.

Award recipients will receive a series of incentives for their participation. Prizes for first place award recipients include: travel and accommodations to BlackBerry Live 2013, conference passes, extensive BlackBerry training, BlackBerry 10 smartphones and more.

Below are this year’s award categories:

1. App of the Year
2. Putting Customers First
3. Mobile Innovation of the Year
4. Making the World a Better Place
5. Entrepreneur of the Year

A BlackBerry selection committee will be carefully reviewing each application and identifying the top 3 finalists shortly after the call for nominations end.

For those interested in being a part of the voting process, you will soon be able to cast your vote for your favorite BlackBerry Achievement Awards candidate beginning on March 28, 2013 until April 15, 2013 at 5pm EST.

What are you waiting for? We want to hear from YOU!

The BlackBerry Achievement Awards (formerly the Wireless Achievement Awards) are just around the corner! These awards bring together the exceptional business, entrepreneur, and developer communities, and recognize those who have taken advantage of all things BlackBerry. Designed for those using BlackBerry technology to help power innovation, the BlackBerry Achievement Awards celebrate where ideas meet execution.

Award Categories

Along with a brand new name, we’ve expanded the award categories to reflect our diverse BlackBerry customer base:

1. App of the Year
2. Putting Customers First
3. Mobile Innovation of the Year
4. Making the World a Better Place
5. Entrepreneur of the Year

To be considered for one of these awards, submit your entry on the BlackBerry Live (formerly BlackBerry World) conference web site. Consider nominating your business, your app, or send in a nomination for a company that you think we should know about.

Awards and Prizes

Five first place winners will receive, each: 1 plane ticket to BlackBerry Live 2013, accommodations for up to 4 nights, 3 full conference passes to BlackBerry Live 2013, and 5 BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Further details on prizing for the runner up (and prizing in general) can be found on the web site (conditions apply).

The Awards Ceremony will take place in Orlando, Florida during BlackBerry Live 2013.

Questions? Please contact achievementawards@rim.com.