And the winners are: Nokia announces grand prize winners in the Calling All Innovators 2011 USD 10 million developer competition

Sunnyvale, CA, USA - Today Nokia widely unveiled the grand prize winners in the 2011 Calling All Innovators developer competition. At a developer event in Sunnyvale, California last night, Nokia awarded 10tons for winning the overall game category with their Sparkle app and BLStream for winning the overall application category with their ShutterPro Premium application.

The Calling All Innovators competition called upon developers globally to compete for a pool of cash and prizes valued at 10 million dollars (USD). Over 800 entries were received from developers in fifty-seven countries with US-based developers submitting the most entries. Additionally, the majority of apps submitted were created using Qt, Nokia’s mobile development platform.

Developers were able to submit entries in seventeen different game and application categories. The US also led in winning the most of the top category winner spots; however, the two grand prize winners are from Finland and grand prize runner-up developers Poynt Corporation for Poynt and Clapfoot Games for Tank Hero, hail from Canada.

For the first time in a developer contest, Nokia invited consumers to participate in the judging by using their downloading power. Part of the judging criteria included the number of downloads and sales for each entry. A panel of judges within Nokia chose the final winners.

The Game category grand prize winning app is Sparkle by 10tons. Sampo Toyssy, co-author of the app from 10tons, commented “We were surprised and feel greatly honored as we know many great games were submitted. Sparkle is one of our most successful products in Nokia’s Ovi Store and the extra marketing promotion Nokia will do on our behalf is a tremendous boost for us.” The Sparkle app, a mobile version of the popular PC game, was inspired by games like Puzz Loop and Zuma.

The Application category grand prize winner is ShutterPro Premium from BLStream. ShutterPro Premium lets users experiment with pictures taken on the Nokia N8 by using interface and advanced features that are intuitive to photographers. Miloslaw Smyk of BLStream notes, “We wanted to innovate with ShutterPro Premium and worked closely with Nokia N8 users who motivated us to create dedicated features for N8 camera enthusiasts. We are happy that our efforts have been recognized by Nokia and by Nokia N8 users,” he added.


Category top winners each receive USD 150,000 with the two grand prizes winners receiving an additional USD 100,000 and a marketing promotion package valued at USD 1.9 million. Other placing winners received various other cash prize amounts. A full list of category winners can be found at http://www.callingallinnovators.com/10M/winners.aspx.

“Our developers continue to delight us with amazing, fun and useful apps,” said Marco Argenti, senior vice president, developer ecosystem and marketplace. “We are pleased to present 10tons and BLStream the top awards in their respective categories for their creativity and innovation.”

With Ovi Store downloads reaching over nine million downloads daily, consumers are sending the message that apps -whether it is games, productivity, imaging or more-are desired from their Nokia devices. Ovi Store is available to consumers using Nokia’s Symbian smartphones and Series 40 mobile devices in more than 190 markets in 32 languages. Additionally, consumers show their preference for operator billing when offered a choice versus credit card billing. Nokia has the largest network of over 120 operator billing partners worldwide.

About Nokia
Nokia is committed to connecting people to what matters to them by combining advanced mobile technology with personalized services. More than 1.3 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia, from our most affordable voice-optimized mobile phones to advanced Internet-connected smartphones sold in virtually every market in the world. Through Ovi (www.ovi.com), people also enjoy access to maps and navigation on mobile, a rapidly expanding applications store, a growing catalog of digital music, free email and more. Nokia’s NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, and Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the leading providers of telecommunications infrastructure hardware, software and professional services globally.