Pictured above: Duncan Borg and Clive Ciappara

Clive Ciappara, 26, from Qormi is the Vodafone winner of the Windows Phone Application Competition organised by Microsoft Malta and Vodafone.  21-year- old Duncan Borg from Żejtun is the Microsoft winner of the same competition. The competition targeted the Maltese developer community and all participants developed an app for Windows Phone 7.  All the working applications and games that were submitted by the Maltese programmers will be added to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace for free, making them available to people worldwide.

The competition aimed to inspire the local programme developer community and entice them to create apps on the Windows phone platform while showcasing apps and games from Maltese developers in the Marketplace.  The competition attracted 12 submissions, of which 7 working applications were considered as finalists and 2 were the winning applications.

Clive Ciappara’s ‘Expense Box App’ helps users track personal and group expenses when shopping or organising a party or an event, when on a trip abroad, or simply on a night out. It stores payments done by each individual and automatically calculates the exact amount of money each have to pay. Features include ‘Who Pays Next?’ suggesting who should make the next payment, ‘Archive’ (old expense boxes) and ‘Overview’ – a summary of who owes money to whom.

This App can be downloaded either by going to Marketplace from a Windows Phone and search for “Expense Box” or by logging into the app’s website www.expensebox.net and click the “Get App” button.   “I was having lunch with friends, when I received an email from Valentinos Georgiades, a Platform Evangelist for Microsoft,” said Clive Ciappara. “When I saw I had won, I couldn’t believe it.  I have been a fan of Windows Phone since it was launched back in February 2010, and this was my first application on WP.  I feel that my achievement is even more valuable since I was the Vodafone winner and felt that I represented the link between the telecommunications and the IT industry. Being one of the winners was a dream come true!”

Duncan Borg’s “Space Conqueror” was the Microsoft’s choice, receiving the most Likes on Microsoft Malta’s Facebook page.  This game is a 3rd-person shooter, where the player controls a spaceship and has to defeat other enemy spaceship troops and advance to defeat their boss.  The game can be played on http://www.space-conqueror.somee.com.  Duncan Borg was assisted by Jurgen Camilleri and Matthew Debattista who all helped in creating this game.

VodafoneMalta’s collaboration with Microsoft is a testimonial of the company’s commitment towards innovation and research, and towards the development of super mobile in the Maltese market.  “As a company we are innovation-hungry,” said Monique Brincau, Marketing Executive from VodafoneMalta.  “We thrive on new initiatives that promote the development of integrated experiences as this complements our status of leaders in mobile data.  Always looking out for innovative developments we make sure to award people who are ambitious enough to develop new ideas and programmes. We’re always very supportive of local talent and of providing opportunities to persons who are ready to take up challenges with Vodafone.”