The $100,000 Arabic App

Nokia has extended the deadline for mobile application developers to enter its contest for the Arab world's best mobile application. The new deadline for entries is November 15. The winning app will get $100,000, second place gets $25,000 - both are a pretty nice payday for any clever Arab developers out there.

The "Calling All Innovators - Bil3arabi" ('in Arabic') contest was launched alongside the catastrophe that was the Nokia N97, and I can imagine that Nokia may be struggling to convince developers to build Symbian apps, given that is is looking fairly clear that Nokia's high-end internet phones of the future will use its Maemo operating system, based on Linux, not Symbian.

Read on for the press release from Nokia:

------PRESS RELEASE---------

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 5 October 2009: Nokia today announced that is allowing additional submissions for its Arabic-language mobile applications competition, Calling All Innovators - Bil3arabi, by welcoming individuals as well as companies, and accepting direct submissions from those developers whose apps cannot currently be uploaded to Ovi Store. Nokia is also giving developers more time, by extending the deadline to 15 November 2009.

"Since announcing the competition in June, we have received a lot of feedback from developers, many of them small developers and individuals, including university students, who requested that we accept their participation.  Therefore, the Calling All Innovators - Bil3arabi developer competition is now open to all developers and individuals with bold ideas and tremendous talent, including professional and independent developers and university students," said Wendy Weckstrom, Services Marketin Manager for Ovi Store, MEA.

She added, "Furthermore, we can assist registered developers, especially through our Forum Nokia developer program, during the development process by giving them the opportunity to share with us the application and content in progress and we will do our best to support them.  The competition also now accepts direct submissions of applications that are ready but not yet Symbian signed or Java verified."

 The competition challenges mobile and web application developers to submit entries for Arabic content in any category within Ovi Store (Applications and Widgets, Video, Personalization, Games, Audio, Flash & Active idle widgets) with a focus on Internet Innovation, Flash, Mobile Games, and social location.

The entries can be submitted to Ovi Store and registered on www.callingallinnovators.com/Bil3arabi  until November 15th 2009 and winners will be announced by December 7th 2009.  Criteria for choosing the winner include quality and functionality; uniqueness and innovativeness; usability and creativity; and local relevancy.

Grand prize winner will receive $100,000 USD in cash; "spotlight" placement featuring the winning application for 4 weeks on the top page of Nokia's Ovi Store; and paid travel to demo the winning application at a Nokia specified event.  The winning application will also be reviewed by Nokia for possible preload on future Nokia devices.

Second place will receive $25,000 USD in cash; and "spotlight" placement featuring the winning application for 3 weeks on a relevant category page on Nokia's Ovi Store.

 The remaining top ten submissions will be given the "Judge's Choice Award," which will give them a one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad, and enables members to receive access to exclusive resources and support to accelerate mobile application development and elevate developer's business visibility in the mobile world.

More information about Nokia's Calling All Innovators Bil3arabi, including how to submit an application and complete contest rules and requirements can be found online at www.callingallinnovators.com/Bil3arabi