For many developers, there’s no greater reward to their work than having it noticed by Apple. On Tuesday evening, the company held its annual Apple Design Awards to recognize those applications that best embody qualities like innovation, technical excellence, and technology adoption.
Though this year’s awards are being held at Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference as usual, the content is a little different from years past. Instead of giving out awards for all of Apple’s platforms, the company instead chose only to consider applications for the iPhone and iPad, and not the Mac. That move left some longtime developers irritated at what seemed like a snub to Apple’s most longstanding platform.
There’s no question, however, that the iPhone and iPad are growing at a rapid clip and that the idea of apps has widely permeated the mainstream. As such, it’s little surprise that Apple would want to focus on its burgeoning platform.
This year’s winners included:
- Financial Times iPad Edition from The Financial Times;
- Doodle Jump from Lima Sky;
- Brushes from Steve Sprang;
- TabToolkit from Agile Partners;
- Articles from Sopheistication Software;
- 20 Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver from Zolmo;
- Star Walk for iPad from Vito Technology;
- Real Racing from Firemint;
- Flight Control HD, also from Firemint; and
- Pinball HD from OOO Gameprom
Nominations are made by developers’ peers—anybody who is a member of the iPhone Developer Program could submit one iPhone app and one iPad app for consideration. Winners traditionally receive Apple hardware and other prizes alongside the silver Apple Design Award trophy.