The Mobile World Congress is sitting on the fence when it comes to picking its favorite phone. The event organizer jointly awarded the iPhone 6 and the LG G3 the Best Smartphone Award, while Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 won Best Tablet and IFTTT won Best App.
Actor John Cleese was on hand to give out a staggering 36 separate GSMA awards in five main categories. The Motorola Moto E picked up the Best Low-cost Smartphone prize awarded to devices costing $100 or less and the Moto 360 smart watch was voted Best Wearable Mobile Technology.
The Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) is the association of mobile operators and related companies, formed to promote the GSM network, which organizes the Mobile World Conference.
The Best App award went to IFTTT or "If This Then That," which helps users organize their smartphones. The app, which takes its name from coding lingo, allows users to essentially write little programs for various tasks. Users create orders or "recipies" for IFTTT. For example, "If I take a photo, then upload it to Facebook" or "If I write a note, save it to my Google Drive."
"In an ever-growing universe of valuable yet isolated apps, this helps bring multiple services together, making them more flexible, intuitive and beneficial for all users," the award judges said.
Filipino music portal SPINNR was the surprise winner of the Best Music App and Asphalt 8: Airborne won Best Mobile Gaming App. News Republic's Start a Conversation app won the Best Mobile Media and Publishing Award. The app curates news from 1,000 publications around the world into an interactive easy-to-read format.
ZTE's SPRO smart projector won the Best Mobile-enabled Consumer Device Award. The pocket-sized portable device projects 120-inch images and videos wirelessly from your Android device or via USB or SD card inputs. The Best Breakthrough Technology Award went to Airvana OneCell, which boosts indoor Wi-Fi through special cells in busy areas like hospitals.
The Best Smartphone was the only category of the 36 that failed to produce an individual winner. Perhaps the GSMA was playing politics by not choosing sides in the Apple vs. Android war by picking a winner from each operating system. Strangely, the judges' comments were that the iPhone offered "unparalleled performance and unmatched consumer success." Perhaps the indecisive judges meant unmatched other than in the G3, which they said "offers the best quality mobile viewing experience around today."
See the full list of winners here.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
