As you can see in our Widget and App Store Wiki, a lot of phone manufacturers and operators have already joined the mobile applications battle or are planning their move in this direction. To promote their platforms and app stores and to attract new developers many of them have started competitions, usually with nice prizes to be won.
Have a look at the following currently ongoing competitions:
NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge PRIZE: global prize pool currently at $8.2 million USD in cash and licenses DEADLINE: November 6, 2009 (EMEA region)
The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is focused on driving the development and visibility of innovative location-based solutions (LBS) for wireless devices. From business applications to sports, travel and security, integrating the accuracy and richness of NAVTEQ digital map data facilitates the discovery of the next wave of LBS using dynamic positioning technology. Winners are chosen by a panel of distinguished judges in each of five regions (EMEA, India, South America, North America, APAC).
Registration for the LBS Challenge, EMEA Region has been extended to November 6, 2009. A completed solution is not required at the time of registration. The winners of the EMEA Region will be announced on February 14, 2010 prior to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The global prize pool for this year’s competition is currently at $8.2 million USD in cash and licenses .
Read more: NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge Calling All Innovators Africa 2009 competition: PRIZE: worth more than $125,000 DEADLINE: November 15, 2009
Forum Nokia invites developers to publish their mobile applications to Ovi Store that will enhance the use of mobile devices in Africa in real-world scenarios. Developers can submit applications, widgets, or content of local African interest. This includes any content within Ovi Store content categories (Applications & Widgets, Video, Personalization, Games, Audio, Flash & Active idle widgets, Location based applications, Podcasts).
Submissions for the contest will be accepted until 15 November 2009, and the winners will be announced in 10 December 2009.Grand Prize winner will receive $85,000 USD in cash; premium placement in Ovi Store; and paid travel to demo the winning application at a Nokia-specified event. 2nd - 5th Place get $10,000 USD each in cash; premium placement in Ovi Store.
Read more: Forum Nokia Africa Ovi Store Calling All Innovators France: DEADLINE: November 22, 2009
Forum Nokia invites developers to publish their mobile applications and services to Ovi Store which is relevant to the 15 million users of Nokia devices in France. Developers can submit their applications in the following categories: social location; business and productivity; communications; games; just for fun.
Applications will be accepted until November 22, 2009. The winners will be invited to the conference LeWeb 2009 held in Paris on 9 and December 10, 2009 and will demonstrate their winning applications at the event. The first prize winner of all categories will receive 15 000 EUR in cash, opportunity to see the application preloaded on future Nokia mobile sold in France, paid travel to attend the Nokia Developer event, a Nokia N900 and one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad.
Read more: Forum Nokia France Calling All Innovators UK Contest: **
DEADLINE: November 30, 2009**
Forum Nokia invites developers to publish their mobile applications to Ovi Store that will enhance the use of Nokia mobile devices by consumers in the UK. Developers can submit their applications in the following categories: social location; business and productivity; communications and social networking; games; just for fun.
Submissions for the contest will be accepted until 30 November 2009. Winners will be announced by 31 December 2009 and will receive cash and other valuable prizes. One grand prize winner will be selected among the submissions in all contest categories and will receive 20,000 GBP in cash, a trip paid to attend the Nokia Developer event in spring 2010, a promotional package for Ovi Store and one-year membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad.
Read more: Forum Nokia UK **Forum Nokia Calling All Innovators - Publish to Ovi: ** (Latin America) **PRIZE: worth $50,000 (USD)
DEADLINE: January 15, 2010**
Forum Nokia invites developers to publish their mobile application to Ovi Store in the following categories: Entertainment, News and Information; Games; Free Application for any category of Ovi Store. There will be a winner in each of the three categories and two second places in each category.
Thetwo second places in each category will receive a new smartphone from Nokia and a free membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad for 1 year. The winner in each category will receive $ 5,000 (local currency), a new smartphone from Nokia and a free membership in Forum Nokia Launchpad for 1 year. From the winners of the three categories, also will choose a regional winner . The regional winner will earn an additional $ 15,000, a trip paid to attend the Nokia Developer Summit in California and a promotional package from 5,000 in value (determined by Nokia) of your mobile application in Ovi Store. All submissions to the contest must be translated into Spanish. Deadline is January 15, 2010. Winning applications will be determined based on the quality and consumer appeal of the applications determined by the judges of Nokia. **
Extra opportunity:** If your application has been published in Ovi Store for the Nokia 5130 in one of three categories, you are eligible for an additional prize of $ 5,000!
Read more: Forum Nokia LTA **Vodafone 360 App Star Competition:
TOP PRIZE: € 100,000
DEADLINE: March 31, 2010**
Vodafone has launched the Vodafone 360 App Star Competition to find the most innovative and useful mobile widgets with a 1 million EU prize fund awarded and evaluated on the user experience, value to the customer and innovation.
The 1st phase of the competition runs until March 31st 2010 , so you have until then to submit your entry. Three judges from each of the local Vodafone countries will judge the submitted entries and pick three winners. The three winners will receive (in reverse order), €10,000 , €15,000 and €25,000 . There will be 24 winners, which will be announced on April 15th 2010.
In the 2nd phase the winner of each country (8 in total) will then be opened up to public voting, where anyone can vote for the widget of their choice until May 14th 2010 . The widget with the second highest number of votes wins an additional €25,000 , but the widget with most votes will then win another €75,000 . The winners will be announced during May 2010.
Read more: Vodafone 360 App Star Competition, siliconrepublic.com
Please let us know if you know of other mobile application or widget competitions and make sure you check out our Wiki for the latest updates! … Oh and please let us know if you are one of the lucky winners and we will happily blog about this :)