IAA: Deutsche Telekom rewards best app idea for cars

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• Winning app m'i'electric designed to calculate whether electric car is worth buying.

• Winner receives EUR 25,000.

• Deutsche Telekom launches Communicar, a portal for car apps.

Who would really benefit from buying an electric car? Car buyers may be able to get a quick answer to this question in future with an app. Horst Leonberger, Head of the Group’s Connected Car unit, selected this app idea as the winner of Deutsche Telekom’s App Awards at the IAA. The idea for the m'i'electric app has earned its inventor, Florian Kock from Stuttgart, the Golden Auto App award, worth EUR 25,000.

A total of 1,885 ideas for the connected car were submitted to www.appfahren.de by app-loving drivers between December 2010 and August 2011. The presentation of the award for the overall winner at the IAA marked the end of the ideas competition, which also saw the involvement of ADAC, Autobild, Automobilwoche, BMW, Continental and Gartner as partners and jury members.

The winning app is designed to analyze driving behavior over several weeks and use the data collected as a basis for calculating whether it would be worthwhile for the driver to switch to an electric car. The mini-program records various information, including the length of trips made, and uses this information to calculate whether, for example, the driver would have to change his or her route in order to access charging points for the electric vehicle. Such an app could be of interest to many drivers in the near future. A number of major German car manufacturers at this year’s IAA announced their plans to launch mid-sized electric vehicles onto the market in 2013.

Portal launched for car apps

App-enabled devices and Internet access in cars will become more common over the next few years. As such, Deutsche Telekom is providing the new www.communicar.de portal, a platform that enables drivers to gain an overview of the car apps available in the Google Android Market and the Apple App Store. In addition, the portal will deliver news, test reports and information about smartphone use in cars. An initial consumer study carried out by market research institute NW Research on behalf of communicar.de recently found that two thirds of drivers already use apps for planning journeys or during trips.

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