Samsung Crowdsources for Mobile App Ideas in Nigeria

Samsung has just launched a mobile applications development contest, apparently the first of its kind in Nigeria, as a way of showcasing Nigeria’s talent and developing applications into the market place.

The idea is to help Nigeria take its place as a technology giant able to develop mobile applications that are relevant and useful within the Nigeria market.

According to Samsung,

The Samsung Apps Developers Contest is open only to applications that have not been made publicly available to the market prior to the beginning of the contest. Additionally, applications that have been entered in similar contests are ineligible for the Samsung Apps Developers Contest, regardless whether they were winning apps. Similarly, updated versions of applications that have been entered for in a similar contest are also ineligible.

All applications submitted for the Samsung Apps Developers Contest will be made available to all contest judges for free, exclusively for the purposes of judging. If contestants intend to sell their application after the conclusion of the contest, they may submit a “trial” version of the application for judging. We recommend that the trial version include full functionality, but with a timed expiration, rather than including limited functionality with no expiration. Judges will evaluate the applications based on only the functionality accessible to them.

Samsung also requires that all the applications must run on the Java, Android and Bada mobile operating systems and must be in English language.

Thus, developers are expected to design mobile applications and submit in 7 different categories, namely: Education/Reference, Games: Casual/Puzzle, Games: Arcade/Action, Social Networking & Lifestyle, Productivity/Tools, Entertainment + Media, Miscellaneous.

Contest Reward

Prizes will be awarded in each of the following categories:

1 stage selection (Per Category)

1st prize: N150,000

2nd prize: N100,000

3rd prize: N50,000

Overall (across all categories)

1st prize: N 1 Million

2nd prize: N 500,000

3rd prize: N 250,000

Contest Timeline

September 27 – October 31, 2010: Registration and upload of applications online by contestants.

November 1 – November 6, 2010: Initial selection and ratings by  judges.

November 8 – November 20, 2010: Public voting and selection of winners.

November 25, 2010: Presentation of prizes to the winners.

My thoughts

I’ve always been advocating for developer contests such as this. In a July interview published by YHP, I said:

We need to see web and mobile app development competitions sponsored by huge technology companies and targeted at University students.

I believe that this will act as a catalyst towards creating a vibrant mobile applications development space in Nigeria. My guess would have been that Nokia would take the lead, but they’ve shown that they’re late in the game (again).

Apparently, the two mobile phone manufacturers are both competing for a better market share in Nigeria, although Nokia seems to be the leader.

Samsung, on the other hand, would be looking to take an early-mover advantage in creating a mobile applications market in Nigeria, even though I think their move might just be to tap into the knowledge of Nigerian developers for mobile app ideas.

Will winners emerge from the mobile apps contest? I’m not sure, but it’ll be interesting to watch this space!