SenchaCon 2011 Contest Winners

Our SenchaCon 2011 Contest encouraged our community to build the best apps possible with Sencha technologies. And, as ever, the entries did not disappoint! We had hundreds of application submissions, and the standard was extremely high.

The contest encouraged the entrants to build apps with a number of characteristics. We were looking for the use of contemporary Sencha frameworks, cloud- & sync-based services, and apps which exhibited sharing and social functionality. And this week, at SenchaCon 2011 itself, in Austin, we announced the short list, the finalists, and the winner.

It was with great pleasure that we announced the winners of the 2011 Nissan Leaf were… Getographer! This is a photo sharing application with a difference: as well as being able to take and share photographs, you are also able to make requests to have certain photographs taken for you in certain locations.

The judges loved this application partly because its user interface is elegant and easy to use, but belies a complex application underneath. The camera integration into a Sencha Touch app is seamless and effective, as was the use of system notifications. The application is themed elegantly and works equally well on both Android and iOS devices.

The application is already available for download from the two app stores, and of course we’ve also listed it on our new directory. Check it out – it’s a lot of fun!

Our second place, winning a MacBook Pro and $10,000, was WikPic, a tablet-based gallery viewer. Judges loved the simplicity of the controls and the social interaction – such as being able to comment on photos and pull up galleries created by members of your social networks. A great demonstration of how a web application can look and feel like a native one.

In third place, winning an iPad 2 and $2,500, was Wrike, a desktop project-management application designed for enterprise usage. The application allows the creation of tasks, status updates and comments, and strongly encourages social interaction between employees. Judges particularly liked the app’s subtle and contemporary theme, as well as some excellent components, such as its Gantt chart.

We had a lot of fun judging this contest, and as ever, are humbled by the quality of applications that our community creates. We hope that everyone who entered enjoyed rising to the challenge as much as we did putting it on! The Sencha contest will be back next year, and we can’t wait what you will come up with next time.

In the meantime, please go and try out these applications – as well as those of the runners-up. Many congratulations to all involved!