Vodafone runs mobile widget competition

Mobile operator Vodafone has launched a new competition inviting developers to vie for a chance to win £20,000 by creating a new mobile widget.

Widgets are mini applications that sit on a mobile handset, and have become popular because they can be personalised to find the information users want on the web.

Vodafone's Betavine research and development lab will assess the competition entries according to usability, innovation and value to users.

The company will promote the winning widget to users in one of its major markets, while two runners up will receive a £1,000 cash prize.

In other news, the week got off to a good start for Vodafone with the announcement that revenues rose over 14 per cent to £10.47m in the quarter ending 31 December.

"In the context of the current economic environment, we have continued to implement our strategy with an emphasis on customer value, mobile data, enterprise and fixed broadband," said Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao in a statement.

"This has driven increased usage, 25 per cent organic growth in data revenue and over 280,000 fixed broadband additions in Europe."