Every year we are both surprised and inspired by the vitality of the Windows Mobile developer community and the variety of products available for all of us to enjoy. We are also gratified by the many experts willing to volunteer their time to help us determine nominations, finalists, and winners of our annual Best Software Awards. You may visit our awards home page (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards) to see the nominees for this year's 2006 awards, last year's winners and finalists, the names and qualifications of our judges, a public nominations form, and other details.
Some stats about the 2006 awards
Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine's Annual Best Software Awards help users select software that best suits their Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone needs by honoring companies that produce outstanding software.
We start with our Encyclopedia of Software and Accessories, which contains nearly 4000 products, about 80% of which are software. Vendors may list their products for free.
Around 100 prominent Windows Mobile webmasters and editors, Microsoft MVPs, support forum helpers, and Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine contributors form our 2006 Board of Experts. They judge the awards.
Our staff and team of judges spend June nominating around 700 products from our online Encyclopedia (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/_enc/encyclopedia.asp) in 88 Pocket PC and 27 Smartphone categories.
Public input on the nominations
A great deal of quality time and attention is put into the nominations process. Even so, with so much Windows Mobile software available, it is certainly possible that excellent products are missed.
In order to minimize the chances of missing great products, the working list of nominees is made public for a two-week period. The target dates are around the first week of July. Suggestions and comments from the public should be made using the nominations form found on our Web site (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards).
The 2006 nominations will be frozen in mid-July. Products and versions released by July 17, 2006 are eligible for the voting, although for logistical reasons, it is possible that newer versions of products released during the judging period may be considered by some judges.
How do judges determine the winner?
The Board of Experts judges make use of the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine online voting infrastructure to comment on the nominees and to cast votes. Experts vote for first, and optionally second and third place. Winners and finalists are the top vote getters in each category.
A big thank you goes to Handango
Handango (http://www.handango.com) works with Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine to provide the Board of Experts registered versions of software that they need for their judging. For the software Handango doesn't carry, judges are provided the Web address of the developer so that they can download demos and request full versions.
New: nominees can get feedback from judges
When judges vote, they often comment on products, discussing features they like and/or offering constructive feedback. For the first time this year, nominees will be able to request receipt of those comments. Edited versions of some of those comments will appear throughout the 2007 issues of Smartphone & Pocket PC.
How to become a judge?
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