The 20 finalists to compete for the Mobile Peer Awards in Barcelona on February 16 have been selected by an international jury of industry experts, thanks to all of them for taking the time to review and make the final selection out of many great candidates. So here are the finalists, divided in two categories:

EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS

Addict Digital Media – Mobile Monday Buenos Aires
aka-aki networks GmbH – MobileMonday Berlin
Babajob.com – MobileMonday Bangalore
Big in Japan Inc. – MobileMonday Dallas
bioLocate – MobileMonday Jakarta
Dial2Do – MobileMonday Dublin
Fortumo – MobileMonday Estonia
Mob4Hire – MobileMonday Vancouver
Orbster GmbH – MobileMonday Munich
Oxynade – MobileMonday Brussels
Tellmewhere – MobileMonday Paris
Xumii – MobileMonday Sydney

EMERGING STARTUPS

Aradiom – MobileMonday Istanbul
fring – MobileMonday Tel Aviv
Getjar Networks – MobileMonday Lithuania
Keynetik – MobileMonday Washington DC
Mobintech A/S – MobileMonday Copenhagen
PopCatcher AB – MobileMonday Sweden
Soonr – MobileMonday Silicon Valley
Unkasoft Advergaming – MobileMonday Madrid

The registration to attend is now also open.

163 startups participated and 42 nominees were selected by their respective MobileMonday chapters. This week, an international Jury will select the 20 finalists to present at the Peer Awards event in Barcelona. The finalists will be announced on January 26.

The startups nominated by the MobileMonday chapters to compete for the Mobile Peer Awards in Barcelona are:

• 7syntax – MobileMonday Portugal
• Addict Digital Media – Mobile Monday Buenos Aires
• aka-aki networks GmbH – MobileMonday Berlin
• Anaeko – MobileMonday Belfast
• Aradiom – MobileMonday Istanbul
• Babajob.com – MobileMonday Bangalore
• Beabloo – MobileMonday Barcelona
• Big in Japan Inc. – MobileMonday Dallas
• bioLocate – MobileMonday Jakarta
• CIDWAY – MobileMonday Geneva
• Cirius Technologies, Inc. – MobileMonday Los Angeles
• Crave Mobile – MobileMonday Philadelphia
• Creador Estudio Interactivo C.A. – MobileMonday Caracas
• Dial2Do – MobileMonday Dublin
• Dialy – Mobile Monday Maroc
• DPGroup >> Product: SINDYK – MobileMonday Bogota
• Fortumo – MobileMonday Estonia
• fring – MobileMonday Tel Aviv
• Getjar Networks – MobileMonday Lithuania
• iKen Solutions – MobileMonday Mumbai
• Keynetik – MobileMonday Washington DC
• Liquid Air Lab GmbH / adplace.com – MobileMonday Frankfurt
• Mob4Hire – MobileMonday Vancouver
• Mobintech A/S – MobileMonday Copenhagen
• mobiSiteGalore – MobileMonday Chennai
• MocoSpace – Mobile Monday Boston
• Nimbuzz B.V. – Mobile Monday Amsterdam
• Orbster GmbH – MobileMonday Munich
• Oxynade – MobileMonday Brussels
• Palringo – MobileMonday London
• rmbrME – MobileMonday New York
• Secusmart GmbH – MobileMonday Dusseldorf
• Smaato Inc. – MobileMonday Hamburg
• Soonr – MobileMonday Silicon Valley
• Tellmewhere – MobileMonday Paris
• Unkasoft Advergaming – MobileMonday Madrid
• Wapalta – MobileMonday St. Petersburg
• Wapja.net – MobileMonday Sao Paulo
• WorldMate, Inc. – MobileMonday Atlanta
• Xumii – MobileMonday Sydney

* NOTE Helsinki and Stockholm nominations pending.

MobileMonday the global mobile networking community is opening its Mobile Peer Awards competition for 2009. Participation is free of charge and open to any startup willing to pay their way to the event. Innovative startups active in mobile technology or startups with a mobile product are invited to register at mobilepeerawards.com before the December 31 deadline.

MobileMonday Chapter organizers will look look at three criteria when making their decision:

• originality, creativity and innovativeness
• technical and operational feasibility
• economic and financial viability

Each of the 68 MobileMonday Chapters (cities) will select their local startup nominee which will be announced on January 19, 2009. An international jury of renowned industry experts, investors and entrepreneurs (to be announced soon) will select the 20 finalists that will present on stage in Barcelona on February 16, 2009. Last year’s jury included representatives from Telefónica, Vodafone, Google, Yahoo!, AdMob, MobHappy, GoMoNews, Nexit Ventures, and Xtract.

Check the “how to participate” page for further details on the participation and registration process.

Currently there are startups signed up from Buenos Aires, Boston, Berlin, Sweden, Belfast, Dublin, Jakarta, New York, Chennai. Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Madrid, Barcelona and other chapters are preparing their preselections now. Once again, the event will gather the best in Mobile Innovation to come.

Previous MobileMonday Peer Awards winners include Realeyes 3D, Mobile Complete (now Device Anywhere) and Plazes in 2007; Buzzd, Funambol, Taptu and Kimia in 2008 (Winners’ Circle page here).

Anyone can sign up to the Mobile Peer Awards website to view startups and follow the competition.

About
The MobileMonday Mobile Peer Awards Barcelona are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and, with over 1000 attendants, the point of reference in startup innovation during the Mobile World Congress. The MobileMonday Peer Awards are organized by MobileMonday Barcelona in collaboration with the entire MobileMonday Community.

Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.

The previous editions of the Peer Awards have received wide support from the entire mobile ecosystem players, including Telefonica, Nokia, dotMobi, Xtract, Nexit Ventures, Acision, 22@Barcelona, Barcelona City Council, Mippin, Reitek, CIDEM – Generalitat de Catalunya, MSC Malaysia / WCIT2008, Barcelona Media.

If you’re interested to become a partner or a sponsor to the Mobile Peer Awards during Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, please contact info AT mobilemondaybarcelona DOT com.

The 2008 MobileMondy Peer Awards recognized 27 companies from 18 countries at its annual awards event held at Telefonica’s fashionable Espacio Movistar facility during this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Buzzd from New York, a provider of local real-time search information for bars, clubs and restaurants on the mobile device, cleaned the table by winning jury, audience and community awards under the early stage category.

In the Emerging Community category, Taptu a search and sharing engine from London won the award with jury award Funambol, an open source email and messaging company, while local favorite Kimia, a rich media content provider, clinched the audience choice.

Three awards in each category: jury, audience, and community were judged by an expert jury including representatives from Telefónica, Mobile Marketing Association, Vodafone Group, Google, Nexit Ventures, eXtract, Acision, MobHappy, GoMoNews, the MobileMonday global chapter founders and audience SMS voting.

We have created two downloadable PDF documents including slides from all participating companies within each category. The Early-Stage and Emerging Start-Ups presentation slides are currently available for download here. If you are not registered yet, please enter the subscription section to access the documents.

(NOTE: some of the embedded animation’s or video’s have been lost or could not been transferred for PDF document creation).

This year’s winners at the MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona will be invited to participate in the MobileMonday Global Summit in conjunction with the World Congress on IT (WCIT) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 18-22, 2008.

We created a MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona Flickr Group with event pictures (http://www.flickr.com/groups/peerawardsbarcelona/); anyone who has pictures of that evening, feel free to join and post your pictures in the group to share with us.

MobileMonday has announced its Peer Award nominees. 25 chapters from around the world have chosen companies that have demonstrated exceptionally innovative mobile technologies, products, services and concepts.

The event will be held at Espacio Movistar. Luis Jorge Romero, Director of Standards and Innovation in Telefónica España, will be a keynote speaker together with Pekka Ala-Pietilä, CEO and Co-Founder, Blyk. Mr. Romero will speak about the future of the mobile market and his experience driving innovation in Telefónica España, whose Open Innovation strategy encourages innovation and value creation by partnering with new start-ups.

This year’s nominees are:

Amsterdam – Movels
Bangalore – Mobisy
Barcelona – skuair
Berlin – ViiF
Boston – SnapMyLife
Brussels – Mobixx
Chennai – Mobile-worx
Dusseldorf – Cellity
Helsinki – Fromdistance
Istanbul – Mobinex
London – The 3G Dating Agency / Taptu
Madrid – Kimia
Milan – Waymedia
Mumbai – Ziva Technologies
Munich – hiClip
New York – BuzzD
Oslo – Adactus
Paris – WebWag
Rome – Nanology
Shanghai – DuoGuo
Silicon Valley – Funambol
Singapore – mBit.tv
St. Petersburg – 4Mobi.TV
Stockholm – Momail
Taipei – Toro

This year’s winners at the MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona will also be invited to participate in the Innovation Pad activities at the MobileMonday Global Summit in conjunction with the World Congress on IT in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 18-22, 2008.

The event is also going to showcase for the first time the new barcelona.mobi mobile urban guide.

Our thanks to our partners Telefónica Movistar, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Nokia, dotMobi, Xtract, Acision, Nexit Ventures, Mippin, 22@Barcelona and Barcelona Media for their invaluable support to this event organised by dotopen.

Additional information is available at http://www.mobilemondaybarcelona.com/peerawards/