Serge Media Debuts With Launch of Million-Dollar "App Challenge" for New Mobile Video/Voice/Audio Search Platform

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Incentivizing worldwide app developers to be part of the launch of a groundbreaking new mobile search platform, the recently launched Serge Media Corporation today announced the SergeSDK (Software Development Kit) Challenge, with cash prizes for the most successful developers reaching up to $1 million.

Serge is a promising new mobile search platform incorporating the most advanced voice, music, vision, barcode, QR code, location, augmented reality and video recognition technology. By letting consumers Search What You See™, mobile phone users no longer need to type search terms, but can simply speak or photograph an object – whether a barcode, product logo, even a video or film – to return search results provided by the brand owner. Through the Serge carousel, consumers can also select results from other sources, such as news and social networking sites.

To participate in the SergeSDK Challenge, developers are encouraged to put their creative skills to the test by submitting new and existing apps, which will join the first wave of Serge apps launching in Spring 2012. Existing apps with aggregated users just need to incorporate the Serge API to enter the challenge. Along with expert guidance from the Serge team, developers can earn sizable rewards depending on the number of downloads from each app and the time to achieve them. Rewards include $10,000 (30 days), $20,000 (60 days), $100,000 (90 days) and a cool $1 million for the first app to reach 20 million downloads. Developers can read rules, submit apps and track their download numbers on the SergeSDK website (www.SergeSDK.com) as well as Twitter (@SergeSDK).

Fueling a burgeoning marketplace with development capital, former Apple engineer Kevin Keheley teamed with TBA Global co-founder Brian Murphy and former Sun Microsystem veteran, Raymond "Larry" Smith to form Serge Media Corporation. Keheley, Murphy and Smith's combined management team have launched over a dozen successful media and technology companies. Together they bring decades of management, creative and marketing expertise to Serge Media and, by extension, developers who participate in the SergeSDK Challenge. Serge Media Corporation is backed by a Luxembourg-based financial consortium.

Serge Media President Kevin Keheley has been building and engineering iPhone apps since the start of iOS. Although most of the work Kevin was doing for Apple is under lock and key, his iOS skills programming were founded and mastered during this time. After Kevin's career at Apple, he worked at TapLynx, Double Encore, Inspiring Apps and AppVinyard. His roles have ranged from writing code and UI development to platform design.

As chief marketing officer for Serge Media, Brian Murphy draws from more than 30 years' experience in entertainment and technology. Before joining Serge, he served as EVP of branded entertainment at TBA Global, one of the world's leading marketing and communications companies. Prior to TBA, Murphy founded and served for seven years as CEO of Fearless Entertainment, a full-service entertainment marketing, production, and promotion company, and as EVP/general manager of Warner Custom Music, leading corporate marketing and promotion for Warner Music Group.

The Serge image and video recognition system, SVSv1, was developed by the company's CTO Raymond "Larry" Smith, a recognized software engineering pioneer. During two decades with Sun Microsystems, he proudly served as part of the early development team that implemented large-scale projects on the Solaris platform, also delivering other global projects and mission-critical applications across various Sun departments. Smith is also the author and creator of a wide variety of popular mobile phone applications for the iOS and Android platforms.

"We believe the SergeSDK is a revolutionary search tool with the ability to transform everything from the way consumers experience content, media and social networking to the way businesses can use the application to augment their operations and gain more traffic," stated Murphy. "Given its scope and functionality, the possibilities for this platform could eclipse all other search tools."

"With web search increasingly headed to mobile devices, Serge empowers these devices by allowing consumers to more directly interact with their environment," added Keheley. "We are confident that a whole new category of developers and entrepreneurs will emerge around the SergeSDK and build apps that can be even more interactive and dynamic."

SOURCE Serge Media Corporation