Movirtu and frog design Win 2010 MEX Mobile User Experience Award
MXSeries selected as 2010 MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year
LONDON, UK May 28, 2010 - Movirtu, the supplier of innovative network infrastructure solutions for mobile operators servicing rural poor communities located in Africa and South Asia, and frog design, the global innovation firm that helps the world's leading companies create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences, announced today that the result of their collaborating efforts, MXSeries and the Movirtu Cloud Phone, was named 2010 MEX Mobile User Experience Innovator of the Year.
The winners of the 2010 MEX User Experience Awards were announced on 19th May at an evening reception in London. Hosted on the 1st night of the 7th international MEX User Experience Conference, the Awards were attended by 100 leading mobile industry executives. The MEX Awards challenge the world's most talented students, designers and companies to create cutting edge mobile and multi-platform user experience innovations.
"We chose MXSeries because it highlights the real user experience needs of the billions of new customers in emerging markets," said Marek Pawlowski, Founder of the MEX Conference & Chair of the MEX Awards judging panel.
The MXSeries of products enable mobile operators to launch Cloud Phone services in their chosen market. The products include MXShare, which when installed in the core of a mobile network enable people who cannot afford to buy a handset to make and receive calls, SMSs and messages using other people's phones or street-side payphones; MXPay which allows people who do not own a mobile phone or SIM to send or receive remittances using existing mobile payment systems; and MXInfo which enables personalized information access and exchange for healthcare, agriculture and education. All the products require no special handsets, SIM cards, or additional client software; they work instantly on all mobile handsets available today using protocols already existing in today's GSM Association standards. frog design collaborated with Movirtu to work on the user interface innovation to ensure quick navigation and ease of use.
“We are genuinely honored to be named MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year,” said Nigel Waller, CEO and Founder of Movirtu. “We could not have done it without our friends at frog design. With their help our idea became a product.”
“We are thrilled that our collaboration with Movirtu has been proven so successful,” said Doreen Lorenzo, President of frog design. “MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year is an outstanding recognition of frog's and Movirtu's efforts to simplify access to technology for those who need it most.”
About frog design
frog design is a global innovation firm and works with the world's leading companies, helping them to create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences. frog's multidisciplinary process reveals valuable consumer and market insights and inspires lasting, humanizing solutions. With a team of more than 500 designers, technologists, strategists, and analysts, frog delivers fully convergent experiences that span multiple technologies, platforms, and media. frog works across a broad spectrum of industries, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, healthcare, media, education, finance, retail, and fashion. Clients include Disney, GE, HP, Intel, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Qualcomm, Seagate, Siemens, and others. Founded in 1969, frog is headquartered in San Francisco, with studios in Amsterdam, Austin, Milan, Munich, New York, Seattle, and Shanghai. frog design is an independent division of Aricent, a global innovation, technology, and outsourcing company, focused exclusively on communications. Aricent is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital, The Family Office, and CPP Investment Board.
About Movirtu
Movirtu is a for-profit social enterprise that provides innovative network infrastructure solutions for mobile operators servicing rural poor communities in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia to help them realise shared access to basic mobile phone services for people earning less than $2 a day. Movirtu's MX series of patent pending products includes MXShare system enabling people who cannot afford to buy a handset to make and receive calls, SMSs and messages using other people's phones or street-side payphones; MXPay which enables people who do not own a mobile phone or SIM to send or receive remittances using existing mobile payment systems and MXInfo which enables personalised information access and exchange for healthcare, agriculture and education. Movirtu is a private company, headquartered in London, UK with offices in Centurion, South Africa. www.movirtu.com
About MEX
MEX is a very different style of conference, combining pre-event debate, practical workshops and a wide range of innovative session formats to tap into the collective intelligence of the participants. It is a two day strategy forum exploring the techniques and strategies for creating great mobile user experience in a multi-platform digital environment. Further information on the awards can be found on the official winners page: http://www.pmn.co.uk/mex/awards10.shtml
For additional information, please contact:
Sara Munday
Director of Marketing and Communications
frog design inc.
T: +1-415-489-3073
M: +1- 650-387-2061
sara.munday@frogdesign.com
Julia Simonova Lopez
Marketing Manager
Movirtu Limited
T: +44 20 7043 1131
julia@movirtu.com
Marek Pawlowski
PMN - Mobile Industry Intelligence
M: +44 7767 622957
http://pmn.co.uk/mex/