MobileBeat Startup Competition: Meet the next generation of consumer applications

The MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, sponsored by Palm, kicked off this morning with the introduction of five new consumer applications hoping to change the way you use your phone on a daily basis. Two winners at the end of the day — selected from a field of 20 consumer apps and infrastructure services — will receive prestigious Tesla Awards.

As emcee and VentureBeat Executive Editor Owen Thomas noted, the stakes are pretty high in this contest. The exposure of winning has successfully propelled previous recipients to the top of their fields.

In 2008, the winner of best overall infrastructure was AdMob, which went on to sell to search giant Google for $750 million less that two years later. And both of last year’s winners, Aloqa and IQ Engines are raising funding and gaining significant traction.

The panel of judges for today’s MobileBeat Startup Competition includes Rob Coneybeer, co-founder and managing director of Shasta Ventures; Eric Duprat, general manager of mobile for PayPal; Anand Iyer, senior project manager on the Windows Phone 7 team at Microsoft; and Alan Warms, CEO of Appolicious (panel pictured below).

The judges are evaluating startups based on three factors: presentation, innovation, and market opportunity.

The first group of startups to present today includes:

Motolingo: A startup launching a set of mobile apps that allows your phone to communicate with your car, serving you information you need to drive smarter and safer. It gives you data like fuel status, mileage, what your check-engine light means, and even reminds you to stop texting while driving.

Judge response: Anand Iyer said the judges would have liked to see more of the product in the demo, but were overall positive about its utility and the amount of interest it might receive from consumers.

Emantras: The company showed off its new Mobl21 application, which can be used to create, manage and distribute educational content to the web and mobile devices.

Judge response: “I think it’s a great space,” said Rob Coneybeer. “It would have been nice to see the actual application, but it did a good job of bringing up the flash cards [one type of educational material made possible via the platform].”

AppCityLife: The company presented its city guide platform, which allows local advertisers to run affordable, targeted promotions. It sees the potential to bring in $1 million in revenue per city guide in the field. Right now, it’s only launched in Albuquerque, N.M.

Judge response: “They are competing directly with Google, Foursquare, Gowalla and services like that,” said Alan Williams, CEO of Appolicious. “The question is how is it going to break through the noise and gain adoption?”

EduPath: The startup showcased its smartphone application for SAT and LSAT test preparation, which allows you to work through exercises as if they were in any of the millions of test prep books sold by companies like the Princeton Review and Kaplan every year.

Judge response: “We love it — it’s a very exciting idea,” Eric Duprat said. “The idea is very interesting, as is their market potential. I would have loved to have this tool when I was studying.”

OwnYourInfo: The startup provides secure cloud-based storage options allowing consumers to pack away and access their most important information and documents via their phones. Its stated goal is to turn people’s handsets into locked filing cabinets, while also making it easy for them to find whatever information they store.

Judge response: Coneybeer acknowledged that data ownership and security have recently become hotbutton issues in the mobile and internet arenas. OwnYourInfo has the potential to capitalize on this trend — but it could also make it harder for the startup to navigate the market.

The judges (from left): Eric Duprat, Alan Warms, Rob Coneybeer, and Anand Iyer.