28 September 2009

Calling All UK, French,
African, and Middle East Innovators

Nokia strikes again with its Calling All Innovators contest. This time it is with a regional slant, as promised. There are individual contests for the top mobile software developers in the UK, France, Africa, and the Middle East. The winners will win cash prizes as well as free services and devices.

Entries must be submitted by November 30th, 2009. Winning entries will be announced on New Year's Eve, 2009. The winners for each category will win £2500, Nokia’s sponsorship to become an Ovi Store publisher to get the winning application to Ovi Store, a full year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad (value of €300), a service designed to accelerate the development of mobile applications and increase the visibility their work. All winning applications in all categories will be reviewed by Nokia to be possibly preloaded in future Nokia firmware. Now THAT'S cool!

There will be five judging categories for the UK:

1. Social location
2. Business and productivity
3. Communications and social networking
4. Games
5. Entertainment

The grand prize goes to the best overall application, and that winner will receive £20,000 in cash, paid travel and a ticket to a Nokia developer event in the spring 2010, Nokia’s sponsorship to become an Ovi Store publisher to get the winning application to Ovi Store, and a one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad (value of €300). I find that hard to beat.

For the Middle Eastern contest, there will be no specific categories, but the prizes will even bigger than the UK, which should really motivate all of the talented developers in the region. Entries must be submitted by November 15th, 2009. Winning entries will be announced on December 7, 2009.

The top ten submissions will all receive free memberships for one full year at Forum Nokia Launchpad (value of €300).

The second place winner will be awarded a whopping $25,000 of cold hard cash and special publicity via a favored position for 3 weeks on the Nokia Ovi Store.

And for the grand prize winner...You can't beat this. $ 100,000 in cash, a favored position for 4 weeks on the home page of the Nokia Ovi Store, plus an expense-paid trip to a Nokia developer event (valued at $3000). As in the UK contest, all winners will be reviewed by Nokia to be possibly preloaded in future Nokia firmware. Even Stevie Wonder can see that's one heck of a hookup, no matter how you slice it!

For the African contest, there will be no specific categories, but the prizes will also be pretty substantial, which should really motivate all of the talented developers in the region. Entries must be submitted by November 15th, 2009. Winning entries will be announced on December 10, 2009.

The top ten submissions will all receive free memberships for one full year at Forum Nokia Launchpad (value of €300).

The second, third, fourth and fifth place winners will each receive $10,000 in cash, premium placement featuring the winning application on a relevant category page in Nokia's newly announced Ovi Store, where consumers will find the best mobile applications and content for their Nokia devices.

The grand prize winner will receive $85,000 in cold hard cash, premium placement featuring the winning application on the top page of Nokia's newly announced Ovi Store, and paid travel to demo the winning application at a Nokia sponsored event.

There will be five judging categories for French participants:

1. Social location
2. Business and productivity
3. Communications and social networking
4. Games
5. Entertainment

Entries must be submitted by November 22th, 2009. Winning entries will be announced on December 9 and 10, 2009 at the conference LeWeb 2009.

The winners for each category will win €2500, a full year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad (value of €300), a service designed to accelerate the development of mobile applications and increase the visibility their work, plus a coveted N900, which I'm sure is enough to get developers salivating. All winning applications in all categories will be reviewed by Nokia to be possibly preloaded in future Nokia firmware on French market devices.

The grand prize goes to the best overall application, and that winner will receive €15,000 in cash, consideration from Nokia by Nokia to be possibly preloaded in future Nokia firmware on French market devices, expenses paid trip to the next Congress developers Nokia, sponsorship to become an Ovi Store publisher to get the winning application to Ovi Store, a one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad (value of €300), and a Nokia N900! Nice!

Rupert Englander, Nokia's UK Head of Services, remarks, "We are looking for bold ideas from talented developers who can demonstrate a real understanding of what UK consumers want from mobile content."

So those currently working on a software masterpiece in these regions, be ready to put your work on a grand stage. All that education and training may finally pay off big.

More information about Forum Nokia's Calling All Innovators including video demostrations of the applications can be found online at www.callingallinnovators.com.