Nokia announces developer contest for North American consumers, is N8 coming to AT&T?
My thoughts on Nokia World 2010 were just posted a couple of days ago where I stated there wasn't much for the US market since Nokia didn't really seem to care much about us over here in North America. Well I it appears I was wrong and Nokia really is going to take definitive steps to start paying attention here as they just announced the Calling All Innovators, North America contest in partnership with AT&T.
This contest follows the very successful one that concluded at Nokia World 2010 and is designed for developers around the world to create apps for North American consumers. AT&T and Nokia will be the judges of the apps and each developer participating in the CTIA developer session, held in October, will receive a Nokia N8 developer pack from Nokia.
As stated by Purnima Kockikar, VP Forum Nokia:
The commitment from Nokia is a clear message that we are serious about the North American market. Developers have the tools, the support from AT&T and the marketing power of Nokia to get visibility for their apps. Additionally, developers can make their Qt-based app available in Ovi Store to Nokia customers globally reaching tens of millions of customers.
There are 17 categories for app submission and consumers will contribute to finalist selection with the number of downloads counting towards part of the winning criteria. I am a little confused though since there are only a couple older Nokia devices available from carriers in North American and if they are only counting North American downloads then it will be difficult to collect many votes.
Maybe there really is an iPhone coming from Verizon and AT&T is starting to see they will need to find another platform to hang their hat on in 2011 with the N8 being a good candidate for that. If you look at the Judging and Awards page of the contest, there is a part of the chart that states there is a New Device Tracking Period and New Device Sales. Is this New Device the Nokia N8 for AT&T? Check out my new Nokia Experts post that shows where the overwhelming evidence is that the N8 is coming to AT&T in early 2011.