Nokia Mobile Challenge Awards Winners for Most Innovative and Useful Java Applications

Business Wire, March 7, 2002

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

HELSINKI, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2002

Top Java (TM) Applications for Mobile Users Include Sophisticated Shopping Lists, Problem Reporting On the Go, and Managing Virtual Pop

Stars

Nokia today announced the winners of the first Nokia Mobile Challenge contest in Java(TM) (J2ME) category for best applications in communications, entertainment and enhanced productivity. The contest judges selected the applications which showed the best combination of mobility, quality and usability.

In the 'company' series, the winning productivity enhancer, titled "QuickShop", was designed by Hartmann-Software (Germany). QuickShop is a practical application for daily use, enabling people to select their favourite dishes from a database in the Internet, and to import the ingredients of the recipe right into their mobile phone's shopping list. It is also possible to enter the shop and locate an ingredient. Once this information has been stored in the phone, it can be used again next time.

For communications category, Clearigo Solutions Inc (Canada) was presented with the 1st award for clearBUGS. It is a time-saving J2ME client application allowing field service personnel to report problems from the actual site and assign them to appropriate colleagues via mobile devices. They can keep a to-do list as well as prioritize, schedule and track dependencies while on the go. There is no need to go to the office or even resort to one's laptop.

In the entertainment category, kiloo (Denmark) won the award with Popstar, which allows the user to manage the career of his/her very own pop star. The application can be compared with the popular virtual pet key rings. To succeed, the user must meet the basic needs of the wanna-be pop star, such as eating. To gain further fame, however, it is also necessary to tour, rehearse and buy new and better gear.

The winning companies were awarded a Nokia 9200 Series Communicator, and they will also be offered the opportunity to demonstrate their applications with Nokia at various tradeshows such as CeBIT 2002.

In addition, the jury of the Nokia Mobile Challenge recognized three students for creating outstanding Java applications: Lukasz Luzar (Poland) for a currency trading application; Ram Kumar (Malaysia) for an E-mail client application; and Michael Behrisch (Germany) for the "Koloris" game. They will all receive a Nokia 5510 phone.

"With this contest we wanted to honor companies and students who have created easy-to-use, practical and attractive mobile applications on open platforms for a wide audience. We were pleasantly surprised by the number, quality and diversity of the entrants. The success of this contest reflects the huge interest of mobile application developers in Java programming language, one of the key enabling application technologies of interoperable mobile services for the future," said Jouko Hayrynen, vice president, Forum Nokia.

Themed as 'Shortcut to Success', the Nokia Mobile Challenge contests started in November 2001 to encourage developers all over the world to create Symbian OS and Java applications for Nokia's state-of-the-art mobile devices, such as the Nokia 7650 and the Nokia 9200 Communicator series. The Java applications contest attracted nearly 500 participants. The contest for Symbian OS applications will continue until March 31st, 2002.

Forum Nokia, the on-line service for developers of mobile applications worldwide, has been hosting the contests and is playing an active role in supporting the entrants in their development work. Further information on the Nokia Mobile Challenge contest, including screen shots of the winning applications, is available at www.forum.nokia.com.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.