Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs took home one of the most coveted awards in the mobile industry last night at the largest wireless industry event in the world—and yet he wasn’t there to accept it.
Without a doubt, the iPhone has been one of the more influential devices in wireless, but despite its grasp on the industry, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) does not typically participate in events such as the Mobile World Congress. Instead, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company tends to host its own shows in San Francisco, where it can dominate the spotlight. That didn’t stop the GSMA from awarding Jobs as the “mobile personality of the year” award, as voted by the media.
Last night, the awards were presented by British Actor and Writer Stephen Fry and followed up by a party with music from Duran Duran. Typically, the winners represent what was trendy in 2009. Ironically, the best handset went to the HTC Hero, running Google’s Android operating system. A full list after the jump…
The 2010 Global Mobile Award Winners:
Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough: Orange – Mobile High Definition (HD) Voice
Best Mobile Handset or Device: HTC – HTC Hero
Best Mobile Game: The Last City – Fight For Your Life!
Best Mobile Music Service: Odyssey Music Group – Deezer
Best Mobile Advertising or Marketing:: CLANMO GmbH and OgilvyOne – The IKEA PS Mobile Interior Planning Tool
Best Mobile TV Service: CBS (NYSE: CBS) Mobile – TV.COM
Best Mobile Location Based Advertising Campaign: R/GA – Nokia
Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service: Research In Motion – BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0
Best Mobile Internet Service: adaffix – YELLIX
Best Mobile Money Service: Safaricom – M-PESA (bulk payment & utility bill) extension to service
Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development: Grameen Foundation, MTN Uganda, and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) – The Grameen Foundation Application Laboratory (AppLab)
Best Mobile Money for the Unbanked Service: Zain Bahrain B.S.C – ZAP
The Green Mobile Award for Best Green Programme, Product or Initiative: VNL’s solar-powered GSM base station
Green Network Award: Mocambique Celular S.A.R.L – Eco Naturalmente
Best Network Technology Advance: SkyCross – iMAT Antennas
Best Service Delivery Platform: Huawei – Huawei SDP solution
Best Billing & Customer Care Solution: Mobile TeleSystems – You Individual Optimal Tariff Plan
Best Mobile Connected Device (non-handsets): Novatel Wireless – MiFi Intelligent Mobile Hotspot
Government Leadership Award: Kenya
GSMA Chairman’s Award: Carl-Henric Svanberg, Former CEO of Ericsson.