Forum Nokia issues ’Open C Challenge’ to mobile applications developers worldwide

$20,000 in cash and other prizes for developers using Nokia’s Open C Plug-In to build or port open source applications for S60 smartphones

Espoo, Finland, July 16, 2007 - Nokia today announced the first ’Open C Challenge’, a global contest for mobile application development for S60 on Symbian OS smartphones. It is aimed at encouraging open source and freeware developers to use Nokia’s Open C environment, to create innovative mobile applications that will deliver the greatest value to S60 smartphone users worldwide.

Sponsored by Nokia’s global developer support program, Forum Nokia, in conjunction with Orange and the Symbian Developer Network, the Open C Challenge will identify and reward development and porting of mobile applications for S60. The Open C Challenge will enable developers to apply their desktop and open-source development skills using Nokia’s fully supported Open C POSIX environment, which is built on Symbian’s P.I.P.S., to create and port mobile applications for next-generation devices based on the world’s leading smartphone platform.

Beginning immediately upon registration at www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/technologies/open_c/contest.html, the Open C Challenge will provide developer contestants with webinars, training sessions, and peer-to-peer discussion boards to ease their migration from desktop to mobile application development and in porting open-source applications to Symbian OS using the Open C SDK Plug-In.

Open C Challenge finalists will be invited to present their applications to a select panel of industry judges at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London on October 16th and 17th, with Grand Prize and Runner-Up Winners announced on October 17th. Contest winners will receive:
- cash prizes totaling more than $20,000;
- an exclusive invitation to distribute their application via the Orange Application Shop direct to Orange customers via www.orange.co.uk or the Orange World wap site in the UK;
- fast track premium membership in the Orange Partner programme for finalists;
- free Symbian Signing for their winning application;
- a free year’s membership in the Forum Nokia PRO developer program; and,
- additional Nokia marketing and business support.

“Nokia’s global invitation to millions of developers to take the Open C Challenge taps the exponential growth in open source and Symbian developers currently working on exciting new applications for smartphone devices,” said Lee Epting, vice president, Forum Nokia, Nokia’s global developer program. “Identifying and rewarding the latest and greatest applications being built or ported with Open C will showcase the exciting growth in developer productivity that Open C is already driving in S60 smartphone application development worldwide.”

“The Open C Challenge offers a fantastic opportunity for the 55,000 members of the Orange Partner programme to get involved in creating mobile applications for the Nokia open source platform” said Steve Glagow, VP Marketing Operations, Orange. “The Orange Partner programme is dedicated to helping to make mobile application development as easy as possible, to generate innovation and to ultimately deliver exciting products that meet the needs of our worldwide customers. We’re looking forward to seeing some of the great applications that will come out from this contest”.

“Symbian welcomes the Open C Challenge to further encourage innovation from the open source development community,” said Bruce Carney, director, developer program and services, Symbian. “Symbian and our worldwide ecosystem continue to make mobile development easier and more attractive for developers migrating existing desktop and server based applications to Symbian OS. The introduction of P.I.P.S. and Open C POSIX libraries, earlier this year will greatly assist competition entrants to mobilize their applications.”

Nokia’s recently announced Open C Plug-In for the S60 3rd Edition Software Development Kit (SDK) is built on Symbian’s P.I.P.S. and reducing the learning curve for desktop developers to implement business logic and other core components of an application.

Enabling deployment of Open C projects on existing S60 3rd Edition devices, millions of which have already been shipped into the global marketplace, the Open C Plug-In utilizes eight standard C function libraries for easy migration of open source and desktop applications to Symbian OS, lowering the barriers to entry and shortening the learning curve for mobile application development.

In addition, Open C delivers to developers significant portions of three open source projects - OpenSSL, GNOME, and LIBZ - providing the S60 and Symbian developer communities access to middleware functionality that is shared by many important open source projects, including Apache and Firefox.

Nokia’s Open C Challenge is open for registration to software application developers worldwide beginning Monday, July 9, 2007 at 9 a.m. EST at www.forum.nokia.com. A total of up to five (5) applications may be submitted by contestants for consideration in two application development categories: 1) Porting existing open source assets to Open C; and, 2) Native Symbian C++ development in Open C.

Contestants are encouraged to enter more then one category, with winning applications to be selected based on the judging criteria of Innovation, Quality, Usability, Creativity and Degree of Middleware Difficulty.

Prior to completing a registration form online for each application submitted, participating developers must first register as a member of Forum Nokia at www.forum.nokia.com and then download Nokia’s Open C SDK Plug-In for S60 3rd Edition at: www.forum.nokia.com/openc.

Deadline for submission of all applications is September 14, 2007, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Further information on the registration process, including description of entries, eligibility requirements, complete rules and details on prizes are available online at www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/technologies/open_c/contest.html.

About S60
S60 software built on Symbian OS is the world’s leading smartphone software, and is licensed by some of the industry’s foremost mobile device manufacturers. The flexibility of the S60 software allows for various hardware designs and software configurations, as evidenced by the multitude of S60 devices already available on the market. Through its award-winning user interface, extensive support for new mobile services and the innovation potential for partner solutions, S60 provides an open and scalable business opportunity for mobile operators and 3rd party developers. For further information and news about S60 and the S60 community, please visit www.s60.com.

About Symbian
Symbian is a software licensing company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the market-leading open operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones known as smartphones.

Symbian licenses Symbian OS to the world’s leading handset manufacturers and has built close co-operative business relationships with leading companies across the mobile industry. During Q1 2007, 15.9 million Symbian smartphones were sold worldwide to over 250 major network operators, bringing the total number of Symbian smartphones shipped up to 31 March 2007 to 126 million.

Symbian has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom, with offices in the United States, England, and Asia (India, P.R. China, Korea, and Japan). For more information, please visit Symbian.

About Orange
Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with more than 161 million customers on five continents. In June, 2006, as part of the France Telecom integrated operator strategy (NExT programme) to deliver simple, convergent products, Orange became the single brand for mobile, internet and TV offers in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and in Spain, strengthening Orange’s position as the number two mobile and internet services brand in Europe. In addition, Orange Business Services, which operates in 220 countries or territories, became the new banner for business communications solutions and services.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris Eurolist market and on the New York Stock Exchange. At March 31, 2007, the group had more than 100 million mobile customers, about 12.5 million internet customers and 48.5 million fixed line customers. In 2006, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 51.7 billion euros.

Further information about Orange and France Telecom can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com or the France Telecom at www.francetelecom.com.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.

About Orange Partner
Orange Partner is a global partner and developer program from Orange and the France Telecom Group. The program provides developers with online training, a research database, tools, testing processes, application programming interfaces and peer-to-peer contact via the Orange Partner website: www.developers.orange.com. It also provides access to Orange global development centres and a whole range of other support services to members of the program.

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, 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.

About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.