Fresh from the announcement of its collaboration to spur the growth of local developers and content creation on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8, Nokia and MDeC apparently have also set their sights on Series 40 operating system. Together with Celcom, they are now looking for developers that are dare enough to take advantage of what Series 40 have to offer through the Nokia S40 Challenge which was launched last month.

“Within the past couple of years, competition has grown fiercer with mobile app developers trying to conquer popular smartphone platforms with new apps springing up every day. However, there is plenty of untapped revenue opportunities in the Nokia Series 40 platform with over 1.65 million users on Celcom’s network alone, representing 17% of our mobile phone subscribers.

Compared to the other popular platforms, there exists only a small fraction of new apps available for Nokia Series 40 phone users. We see our Nokia S40 Challenge as the golden opportunity for local app developers to showcase their talent and commercialise their ideas with our support as well as the backing of our esteemed partners Nokia and MDeC,” – Afizulazha Abdullah, Chief Digital Services Officer, Celcom Axiata Berhad.

As part of the collaboration, the Finnish mobile phone maker will be responsible in providing app development training on its Series 40 platform as well as prizes for the winners of the challenge in the form of cash and mobile phone. At the same time, MDeC acts as the official endorser of Nokia S40 Challenge in which it will promote to its Integrated Content Development Programme (ICON) developers.

With prizes worth around RM 30,000 as well as the vast opportunities that the Series 40 platform might be able to provide, the Nokia Series 40 Challenge might be something for budding developers out there to consider. Just don’t take too long – the challenge will end To learn more, visit www.nokias40challenge.com or www.facebook.com/developersleague.