Everything is going mobile these days, and some of our region’s most promising services now can be operated in the palm of the hand.

Today’s featured category in the Seattle 2.0 Startup Awards is Mobile App of the Year, recognizing some of the top mobile developers in the region.

This is one of more than a dozen categories in this year’s Awards program, presented by GeekWire. We’ll be featuring one category a day leading up to the big awards bash May 3 at the Experience Music Project. Public voting began last week after finalists were chosen by our judges from hundreds of nominations received from the community.

We’ve got a solid group of finalists in this category, which is sponsored by the AT&T Developer Program. If you haven’t yet registered your vote, here’s your chance. If you need help deciding, see more background on each finalist below the poll.

BattleNations: This app from Seattle’s Z2Live is a combat strategy game that lets gamers command troops and compete with other gamers around the world — a prime example of the booming field of mobile and social games. A follow-up to Z2Live’s first big game, TradeNations, BattleNations is available as a free app for iPhone and iPod touch, with options to purchase in-app add-ons.

Glympse: This app allows users to quickly share their locations with friends, family or co-workers in real time on a map. The app puts the people sharing their locations in control of the experience by letting them determine the amount of time that a “glympse” they’ve sent remains in effect. It’s available for iPhone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Android.

One Bus Away: This service is a big favorite of Seattle area bus riders who constantly check the app to make sure they’ll catch the next bus. The app’s original creator, Brian Ferris, was hired away by Google, but King County Metro, Pierce Transit and Sound Transit provided funding to keep the app maintained. The app is available for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone, in addition to mobile web.

PaperKarma: Who doesn’t hate junk mail? Developed by Seattle software developers Brendan Ribera and Sean Mortazavi, this mobile app allows smartphone users to snap a photo of physical piece of junk mail and immediately be unsubscribed from the distributor’s list. It’s motto is quite simple: “Kill junk mail, save trees.” Released on Android, iOS and Windows Phone in February, the free app proved so popular that the developers couldn’t quite keep up with the initial demand.

Swype: This popular text input technology lets mobile phone users input text by tracing their fingers across the keyboard to connect letters, rather than tapping. The app then recognizes the patterns to figure out the words with uncanny accuracy. The technology is available on a variety of mobile phones (although not yet the iPhone) and as an Android app. The Seattle startup Swype was acquired last year by Nuance Communications.

Tickets are still available for the awards show on May 3rd, one party you won’t want to miss.

Thanks to our event sponsors FilterProtingentSalad LabsSilicon Valley Bank,  SplunkWashington Partners, Heinz MarketingBader MartinSEOmozChristensen O’Connor Johnson KindnessKnollAT&TCooleyStartup Weekend, and Creativello for their support.

Email Rebecca Lovell at rebecca@geekwire.com for available sponsorship opportunities, and learn more here

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