Company Press Release:
INDIAN DEVELOPERS SHINE AT THE NOKIA DEVELOPER SUMMIT IN LONDON
· Nextwave Multimedia’s Comic Creator wins the Grand Prize of USD 30,000 in Entertainment Category of the global Calling All Innovators contest
· Indian developers secure second runner up positions in the Being Green and Productivity categories
· Spice Labs secures third place in the 36 hour long CAI Hackathon
Delhi, INDIA, September 22, 2010 – Indian developers rocked the Nokia Developer Summit 2010, and how! The prestigious, global Calling All Innovators contest, organized by Nokia annually, saw Indian developers walk away with 3 key prizes in 4 categories, in addition to securing 3rd position in the Calling All Innovators Hackathon at the Summit, held simultaneously with Nokia World 2010 in London this year. Comic Creator, an app created by Nextwave Multimedia has emerged as Grand Prize winner in the ‘Entertainment’ category of the Calling All Innovators Contest, while Webdunia and Infimatra Technologies won the second runners up position with their entries Green Plaza in the Eco/ Being Green category and PlanEasy2D in the Productivitiy category respectively.
For the third consecutive year, Nokia challenged developers to demonstrate creativity and innovation and design mobile applications, widgets, products, or services that would make a difference in the lives of the consumers and contribute to the economies of developing countries. The winners were selected among 1,500 developers worldwide who competed in four diverse categories (Life Improvement, Eco/Being Green, Productivity and Entertainment).
Holding the Indian flag high, Spice Labs from India took the second runners up honours in the Calling All Innovators Hackathon for their impressive Toddler Tutor app. The app was based on an idea submitted by Revathi Sreedharan, a 29 year old Software Engineer from India, as part of the global Nokia N8 Make My App contest. Toddler Tutor is a talking app that teaches children alphabets, numbers and common words. The app displays flash cards that can be swiped through and a speak button that speaks out the displayed card. The app also includes a coloring book with lots of images where children can select different colors to fill in. 13 professional developers from around the world worked through 36 grilling hours to create real applications for the new Nokia N8 using the Qt framework , based solely on ideas submitted by consumers during the Nokia N8 Make My App contest. These apps show how quickly skilled developers can create innovate apps when working with the powerful Qt framework and the stellar hardware of the N8.
Congratulating the developers, Kenny Mathers, Head of Developer Relations, APAC, Forum Nokia, said, “Application developers are an integral part of Nokia and we believe that India has the largest and most vibrant pool of qualified developers in the world. The winners from India displayed unique insight and skill to create a variety of well-thought out and innovative apps, services and solutions with the potential to enhance lives around the world. From improving early childhood literacy to sharing news to choosing eco-friendly activities, these apps deliver on the promise of mobile apps making an impact on the social economics of emerging markets. We congratulate the winners of the Global CAI contest winners and believe that this is a clear testament to the talent pool we have in the country.”
Appendix
1. About Calling All Innovators
1. A. Calling All Innovators - The winning apps from India
Comics Creator, the winning application in the Entertainment Category, allows users to create comics using an-easy-to-use tool. The application allows users to create comics and share them with friends, through Email and MMS.
As the Grand Prize winner in the entertainment category, Nextwave Multimedia the creators of Comics Creator received a cash award from Nokia of USD 30,000 and will receive support in distributing their mobile applications to consumers worldwide.
Green Plaza: Green Plaza is an innovative Green application where consumers can check their carbon footprint and get tips/hints to maintain an eco-friendly lifestyle. Users can play an interesting green Quiz to get quick Go Green Tips and also make environmentally sound decisions
Plan Easy2D: PlanEasy2D app can be used to draw floor plans, building exit plans and other plans easily and quickly. The app includes a collection of furniture and textures. The drawing units and scale can be configured for each floor and supports zoom, pan operations.
As second runner up, Webdunia.com and Infimatra Technologies, the creators of Green Plaza and Plan Easy2D respectively, will get cash awards of USD 5000 each, besides support in distributing their content to consumers.
1. B. The Challenge: Calling All Innovators is an annual app development competition presenting developers with the task of creating apps that fall into four diverse categories: Life Improvement, Eco/Being Green, Productivity and Entertainment. This year, Forum Nokia has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the folks responsible for the iconic children's TV show Sesame Street, to help support apps relevant to education in the Life Improvement category with the goal to persuade developers to create exciting apps, perhaps using Sesame Street characters, to teach early literacy through Nokia handsets to children located anywhere in the world.
Awards and Prizes: Several cash prizes are offered in the Calling All Innovators contest. The top three submissions in each of the four categories were rewarded in cash as follows:
- Grand Prize: USD 30,000
- First runner-up: USD 15,000
- Second runner-up: USD 5,000
- Third runner-up: USD 2,000
Following are the winners and runner-ups for the Calling All Innovators Global Contest:
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ENTERTAINMENT
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ECO/ BEING GREEN
Winner
- TripSketch Green Traveler (USA) |
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PRODUCTIVITY
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LIFE IMPROVEMENT
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2. THE CALLING ALL INNOVATORS HACKATHON
Nokia connected the best consumer generated app ideas with top developers from all over the world. The 13 best ideas from the Make My App contest, inviting application ideas from consumers, were developed into real apps for the new Nokia N8 at the Nokia World Developers' Summit 2010 and competed for the Grand prize. The ideas came from countries across the globe such as Brazil, Latvia, Kuwait, Jamaica, India, France, Egypt, Malaysia and UK. In fact, India got 3!
These developers from around the world had 36 hours to create a working application for use on the new Nokia N8, based solely on the submitted ideas. All teams used Qt to develop their final apps.
The top three apps developed during the Hackathon were presented live, on stage, during the closing keynote of the Nokia Developer Summit. The winners of the Hackathon contest received over 100,000 (Euros) in cash and prizes:
· Grand Prize Winner: 50,000 Euros and winners’ bragging rights
· 1st Runner-Up: 20,000 Euros
· 2nd Runner-Up: 10,000 Euros
· 3rd Runner-Up: 3,000 Euros
· All others will receive devices and 1,000 Euro for working apps
All working applications will receive application marketing support from
Forum Nokia and the Nokia Mobile Computing Marketing Teams. This includes:
· Inclusion in Top 50 campaigns
· Ovi Daily App review
· XML feed on Nokia.com and .Mobi
· Mention in e-mail messages to consumers
· Publicity in Nokia’s Facebook page as well as Nokia Conversations (the official Nokia blog)
· Guidance for use in local Nokia N8 marketing campaigns.
About Forum Nokia
Nokia's global developer program, Forum Nokia connects developers to tools, technical information, support, and distribution channels they can use to build and market applications around the globe. From offices in the U.S., Europe, India, Japan, China, and Singapore, Forum Nokia provides technical and business development support to developers and operators to assist them in achieving their goal of successfully launching applications and services to consumers and enterprises. More information is available at www.forum.nokia.com.