Nokia has launched a competition

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 – Leading phone manufacturer Nokia has launched a competition aimed at spurring the development of local content for the Kenyan market.

Speaking during the launch, Nokia Head of Messaging for East and Southern Africa Agatha Gikunda said there was currently a lot of content on the internet that is not ideal for the local market.

Ms Gikunda said Nokia’s ‘Calling All Innovators Africa’ competition, targets the different market segments in the country.

“In Kenya, we have different types of people with diverse needs and preferences. The competition is therefore looking for those innovators who can best identify this and respond effectively,” she said.

She said the competition is also meant to generate a source of income for the many people who remain unemployed.

The competition will seek to identify developers who can create the most locally relevant and best breed of mobile applications.

“I see this competition being very important in terms of increasing the number of content developers in Kenya,” she said.

If Nokia picks the applications, the revenue will be split 70 (developer), 30 (Nokia).

Developers who enter the competition are however not limited to Nokia to showcase their applications.

“The beauty about the competition is that they are free to discuss with other phone manufacturers,” Ms Gikunda explained.

Mobile and web applications developers will be challenged to submit entries for content in any category within Ovi Store with a focus on internet innovation, flash, mobile games and social location.

Nokia has extended the closing date for the competition to November 15 and the winners will be announced on December 10, 2009.

Nokia will also accept direct submissions from those developers whose applications cannot currently be uploaded to Ovi store.

The grand prize is $85,000 (Sh10 million) while 2nd to 5th place contestants getting $10,000 (Sh751,500).

Sponsored