Nokia has launched its PUSH N900 competition

MOBILE PHONE FIRM Nokia has announced the start of a competition pitched at inspiring developers to make the most of its N900 handset and open sauce Maemo software.

The N900 with its Maemo operating system is apparently setting the mobile phone world alight and has gathered enthusiastic acclaim since its launch. Even Nokia was surprised by the reaction it received at its recent Nokia World event where the majority of participants voted it the most popular device on display, easily beating the 3G notebook past the post. Now Nokia is hoping to feed off this excitement by encouraging its developer base to use it in the most creative way possible.

The action kicked off this weekend with a hack and mod workshop on London's South Bank. Now keyboard crunchers and phone tweakers will have until 11th October to enter their best application.

In London a team of judges, including Nokia's Kari Tuutti and Olavi Toivainen from Maemo, will decide on what they think are the five best creations and will bung cash and a handset plus support at their developers. Eventually the results will be shown off in Nokia stores around the world.

Kari Tuutti, Nokia's marketing director for the campaign, summed up Nokia's outlook on the whole affair. "With its innovative open source Maemo platform, 32GB internal storage and sleek design, the Nokia N900 has a speed and raw power which will be even more powerful in the hands of the UK's best hack and mod creatives. We can't wait to see the results", he said.

The contest is already underway. But perhaps someone at Nokia should tell the specially set up website that accompanies it? Although the home page for the competition is accessible nothing else seems to be working yet, despite repeated attempts. µ