Nokia throwing $10 million in the air with hopes that developers will pay attention

Nokia and AT&T are joining forces and starting a “Calling All Innovators” competition that runs between now and the end of January 2011. Nokia’s mission for developers: Make applications that people want for Symbian^3 devices, because everyone is making stuff for Android and iOS, but not us, and we’re number 1 … at least in terms of unit sales. It’s sad when the largest handset manufacture has to make their own Facebook application, their own Foursquare application, even their own Twitter application, because frankly, the mobile developers working at the previously mentioned internet service companies have better things to do with their time than code for a platform no one really uses in the United States.

Sure, Europe and Asia are different, with everyone knowing at least 1 person who has a Nokia … but don’t Asians and Europeans use the same web services that were coded by 2 guys in a garage in California? Therein lies the problem. Details of the contest are as follows:

Developers have until January 28th, 2011, to submit their applications in more than 17 categories. For the first time, consumers will contribute to the finalist selection process by “voting” with their download power; the number of downloads – both free and paid – counts as part of the winning criteria. The final judging will be made by Nokia and AT&T where three winners in each category will be selected. Additionally, an overall contest app and game will be selected as grand prize winners. Category prize winners receive USD 150K each for a total of USD 4 million and grand prize winners receive an additional USD 100K each. Although submissions must be relevant for the North American consumer, developers from around the world can participate.

Winning developers will also receive more than USD 6 million in marketing promotion by Nokia and AT&T in the North American market.

Think you can do it, do you even care? Then get your butt over to callingallinnovators.com/10M and start coding. Oh and expect AT&T to announce a Symbian^3 device in March 2011 at the upcoming CTIA Wireless conference. It’s probably going to be the C6-01, not the N8, but that’s just a gut feeling. I could be wrong, and you should be buying your devices unlocked from Europe anyway.