Lebara Mobile, Vodafone and Microsoft scooped double honours at the Mobile News Awards 2012, hosted by celebrity impressionist Alastair McGowan
Lebara Mobile, Vodafone and Microsoft were all double winners at the sold out Mobile News Awards last night (March 15), held at the The London Hilton on Park Lane.
Ethnic MVNO Lebara made it a hat-trick of wins in the Mobile Virtual Network Operator category by again beating Lycamobile and also won the Customer Service prize for the second year running to add to its trophy haul.
Vodafone went one better from last year and picked up the Business Solutions Provider award for its mHealth Professional service, with its ‘JustTextGiving’ service clinching the Community and Social Enterprise award – a brand new category at the Mobile News Awards.
However Vodafone was again pipped to the Network Operator award, which went to O2 for the second year running.
Microsoft walked away with the Innovative Product award for the impressive performance last year of its Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, beating the Samsung Galaxy Note device. It also won the Industry Advance gong for its popular Microsoft Office 365 service, as voted for by the Mobile News editorial team.
Micro-P won its first ever Mobile News Award after being voted top Hardware Distributor while Mainline Digital Communications regained its Airtime Distributor crown from HSC. Genuine Solutions walked away with the Accessories Distributor award, having been commended last year.
Samsung picked up the Manufacturer prize for the second consecutive year but saw Nokia take the Innovative Handset prize, topping the category with its Lumia 800 smartphone.
Three won Large Retailer for the first time with the highest average Mystery Shop score last year, breaking Orange’s two-year stranglehold on the prize. Mobilefun.co.uk won the Online Retailer award for the second year running.
UTL retained its Service and Repair Crown with a second successive win, beating Fone Doctors’ entry into second place, which received rave reviews from the judges. Sunrise Associates topped the B2B dealer category for the first time, while the Innovative Service prize went to Lycamobile.
Customer Service
Winner: Lebara Mobile
Commended: Vodafone
Finalists: O2 and CPP Group
Service and Repair
Winner: UTL
Commended: Fone Doctors
Finalists: ANOVO and Carphone Warehouse Geek Squad
Business Solutions Provider
Winner: Vodafone mHealth Professional
Commended: Vodafone OneNet
Finalists: Welcomm Communications and Excalibur
Accessories Distributor
Winner: Genuine Solutions
Commended: Frequency Telecom
Finalist: Avenir Telecom
MVNO
Winner: Lebara
Commended: Lycamobile
Finalist: iCard Mobile
Innovative Product
Winner: Windows Phone 7.5
Commended: Samsung Galaxy Note
Finalist: Motorola Work and Play
Innovative Handset
Winner: Nokia Lumia 800
Commended: HTC Sensation
Finalists: Motorola RAZR and Samsung Galaxy S II
Innovative Service
Winner: Lycamobile
Commended: MotoCast
Finalists: O2 Priority Moments and Vodafone Test Drive
B2B Dealer
Winner: Sunrise Associates
Commended: Uplands
Finalists: Voice Mobile and Welcomm Communications
Online Retailer
Winner: MobileFun.co.uk
Commended: Buymobilephones.net
Finalists: Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse
Large Retailer
Winner: Three
Commended: Orange
Finalists: Carphone Warehouse, Vodafone and O2
Community and Social Enterprise
Winner: ‘JustTextGiving’ – Vodafone
Commended: ‘Phones for Heroes’ – Inturn Trading
Finalist: ‘Think Big’ – O2
Airtime Distributor
Winner: Mainline Digital Communications
Commended: Daisy Distribution
Finalists: HSC and Avenir Telecom
Hardware Distributor
Winner: Micro-P
Commended: Brightstar Europe
Finalist: Data Select
Network Operator
Winner: O2
Commended: Vodafone
Finalist: Everything Everywhere
Manufacturer
Winner: Samsung
Commended: Nokia
Finalists: HTC and Motorola
Industry Advance
Winner: Microsoft Office 365
A full report including images of the night will feature in the next issue of Mobile News out March 26.
To purchase images from last night, please visit http://tinyurl.com/7jaevhg
