14 DAY TRIAL // The winners of the third annual competition honoring the best iPhone and iPad apps released in the iTunes App Store - ‘Best App Ever Awards’ - have been announced by 148Apps, whose goal was to highlight a number of noteworthy apps that Apple may have not featured on the front page of iTunes.
148Apps has created the Best App Ever awards in 2008 with the purpose of celebrating the efforts of application developers while raising user awareness about the best apps available, not just the top selling titles.
"The goal of the awards was to help publicize some applications that people may never have seen,” said Jeff Scott, founder of 148Apps and the Best App Ever Awards.
“Some of the best apps have never been featured on the iTunes front page or in an iPhone TV ad, yet they deserve recognition and publicity for the great work the developers have done," added Scott.
609 final nominees were picked from nearly 90,000 initial nominations.
Finally, during the 25-day voting phase in January, nearly 500,000 votes were cast for the apps listed below.
(A list complete with links to the apps’ respective iTunes page is available here)
148Apps lists the winners in each category as follows:
Best App Ever * Angry Birds by Clickgamer
Most Innovative App * iPhone Division Winner :: Word Lens by Quest Visual * iPad Division Winner :: Flipboard by Flipboard Inc.
Best Visual Design * iPhone Division Winner :: Camera by tap tap tap * iPad Division Winner :: Flipboard by Flipboard Inc.
Best Use of iOS Hardware * iPhone Division Winner :: Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner by Big in Japan * iPad Division Winner :: Infinity Blade by Chair Entertainment Group, LLC
Best Navigation App * iPhone Division Winner :: NAVIGON MobileNavigator Europe by NAVIGON AG * iPad Division Winner :: Waze * Social GPS navigation, traffic & road reports by Waze Inc.
Best Social Networking App * iPhone Division Winner :: Instagram by Burbn, Inc. * iPad Division Winner :: TextNow * Unlimited Free Texting and Picture Messaging by Enflick, Inc.
Best Publication App * iPhone Division Winner :: Reeder by Silvio Rizzi * iPad Division Winner :: Instapaper by Marco Arment
Best News App * iPhone Division Winner :: Stitcher Radio by Stitcher, Inc. * iPad Division Winner :: Flipboard by Flipboard Inc.
Best Travel App * iPhone Division Winner :: Where To? * GPS points of interest by FutureTap * iPad Division Winner :: FlightTrack Pro * Live Flight Status Tracker by Mobiata by Ben Kazez
Best Productivity App * iPhone Division Winner :: 2Do: Tasks Done in Style by Guided Ways Technologies Ltd * iPad Division Winner :: Todo for iPad by Appigo
Best Musical App * iPhone Division Winner :: NanoStudio by Blip Interactive Ltd * iPad Division Winner :: MorphWiz by Jordan Rudess: Wizdom Music, LLC
Best Photography App * iPhone Division Winner :: Camera+ by tap tap tap * iPad Division Winner :: Filterstorm by Tai Shimizu
Best Artistic App * iPhone Division Winner :: Hipstamatic by Synthetic Corp * iPad Division Winner :: SketchBook Pro by Autodesk Inc.
Best eBook App * iPhone Division Winner :: iBooks by Apple Inc. * iPad Division Winner :: iBooks by Apple Inc.
Best Reference App * iPhone Division Winner :: Articles The Wikipedia App by Sophiestication Software * iPad Division Winner :: IMDb Movies & TV by IMDb
Best Educational App * iPhone Division Winner :: Math Bingo by ABCya * iPad Division Winner :: Math Bingo by ABCya
Best Kids App * iPhone Division Winner :: Grimm's Rapunzel * 3D Interactive Pop-up Book by Ideal Binary, Ltd. * iPad Division Winner :: Stack the States by Dan Russell-Pinson
Best Young Adults App * iPhone Division Winner :: inClass by OneZeroWare * iPad Division Winner :: iStudiez Pro by Andriy Kachalo & Michael Balashoff
Best Parenting App * iPhone Division Winner :: iRewardChart: Parents Reward Tracker Behavior Chore chart by Gotclues, Inc * iPad Division Winner :: iStudiez Pro by Andriy Kachalo & Michael Balashoff
Most Innovative Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Angry Birds by Clickgamer.com * iPad Division Winner :: Osmos for iPad by Hemisphere Games
Best Game Graphics * iPhone Division Winner :: Real Racing 2 by Firemint Pty Ltd * iPad Division Winner :: Zen Bound 2 Universal by Secret Exit Ltd.
Best Game Controls * iPhone Division Winner :: Angry Birds by Clickgamer * iPad Division Winner :: The Incident by Big Bucket Software
Best Multiplayer Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Fruit Ninja by Halfbrick Studios * iPad Division Winner :: Pocket Legends (3D MMO) by Spacetime Studios, LLC
Best Casual Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Angry Birds by Clickgamer * iPad Division Winner :: Super 7 by No Monkeys
Best Action Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Trucks and Skulls by Appy Entertainment, Inc. * iPad Division Winner :: Infinity Blade by Chair Entertainment Group, LLC
Best Arcade Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Angry Birds by Clickgamer * iPad Division Winner :: Angry Birds HD by Chillingo Ltd
Best Family Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Angry Birds by Clickgamer * iPad Division Winner :: Carcassonne by TheCodingMonkeys
Best MMO Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Pocket Legends (3D MMO) by Spacetime Studios, LLC * iPad Division Winner :: Pocket Legends (3D MMO) by Spacetime Studios, LLC
Best Retro Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Commodore 64 by Manomio LLC * iPad Division Winner :: Sword Of Fargoal Legends by Chillingo Ltd
Best Puzzle Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Cut the Rope by Chillingo Ltd * iPad Division Winner :: Edge by Mobigame
Best Racing Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Real Racing 2 by Firemint Pty Ltd * iPad Division Winner :: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit for iPad by Electronic Arts
Best Strategy Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Plants vs. Zombies by PopCap Games, Inc. * iPad Division Winner :: Sentinel 3: Homeworld by Origin8
Best Word Game * iPhone Division Winner :: Words With Friends by Newtoy Inc. * iPad Division Winner :: Word Solitaire HD by Candywriter