Let the best app win! Global programmers compete in Riyadh

In a tournament to design smartphone applications, 286 participants from around the world will compete in Riyadh tomorrow. Among them are 128 Saudis. A 12-member female Saudi team will also take part in the one-day competition.
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) is organizing the event, in cooperation with Badir Program for Technology Incubators (BPTI), to help build entrepreneurs in the technical field in the Kingdom and promote Arabic content in programming.
Badir, which means to initiate in Arabic, opens the door to business development support for people who have a viable technological idea that can be commercialized into a business opportunity.
The competition also aims to motivate programmers in the Kingdom to work on smartphone apps for commercial gain. This would help programmers gain new skills and experiences through the exchange of ideas, information and expertise for technical support entrepreneurship in the Kingdom and stimulate the spirit of technical innovation among young people to make a positive impact on the economy for public benefit.
Mohammad Badawi, technical expert and founder of Zarcony for Training and Application Development (ZTAD), emphasized the importance of this competition. More than 14 billion applications have been activated around the world. There are more than 350 million users, which makes the applications business promising for developers and investors.
A specialist panel will select the winning teams. The first place winner will be awarded within each of the four platforms: Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Android and iOS.
Each member of the winning team will receive a cash prize.