UIQ Technology are currently running a developer competition, UIQ Open, which is aimed at finding and showcasing the most innovative and elegant third party applications. The competition also aims to encourage developers to discover the extensibility of the UIQ 3 software platform.
UIQ Technology will award prizes in five categories and the criteria are designed to encourage entries from a wide range of participants. UIQ say that 'all types of submissions are welcome: amateur personal demos, open source projects, commercial applications' and that what matters in the judging criteria are 'cool technologies, original use of functionalities, innovative solutions, even porting of successful applications from other platforms is what matters'.
I spoke to Sébastien Peirone, Developer Communications Manager at UIQ Technology, about UIQ Open to discover more detail about UIQ's latest developer competition.
To enter the competition you need to join the UIQ developer program. What are the benefits of this?
If you want to develop application on UIQ 3, you need the UIQ 3 SDK, which is only available to the registered members. With UIQ Open being about creating applications, you obviously need the SDK and therefore you need to be a member before even joining the competition.
However, the benefits of being a member are not limited to access to the UIQ platform (SDK and Tools) and participating in competitions such as UIQ Open, but also:
- Full access to the support documentation
- Participation in the Forum
- Participation in the Knowledge base
- Access to technical support
All the details are available here.
You are accepting entries from the whole scale of developers (from commercial to enthusiasts). What chances do individuals have?
They actually have a good chance to win; this is an opportunity for the less-known and newcomer on the UIQ Platform to be in the spotlight. That doesn't mean that big companies can't be selected: they might if they have an outstanding product in one of the categories; but I'd say you have a good chance to win if, when we review your application, we say:
"Cool, I've never seen this before!" or
"Great! That's the same application I had on my [previous phone]" or
"Ho, I need this..." or
" Hey guys! Come and see that!"
... well, you get my point.
The purpose with UIQ Open is very much to demonstrate what options the UIQ platform allows you, and we want to show the fantastic work of all involved: the UIQ 3 phones and the creativity of the developer community.
For the commercial applications, there is still a clear advantage in participating in the competition, as the winners will be part of UIQ Demo Suite and get direct marketing value with the prizes related to Handango's and Motricity's marketing packages.
Besides, even if a winning application is not complete at the time it gets rewarded, it has until the end of the year to benefit from Motricity's and Handango's offers. So you see, participating in UIQ Open is time well spent.
Also, don't forget that there are 2 winners in each of the 5 categories, which allows two great applications to win even if they are too different to be compared directly.
Can you give any tips on the sort of applications, games or demos you are looking for? Is there an under-represented area you think developers could explore?
We are looking for applications in each of the five categories: Business, Mobility, Lifestyle, Entertainment and Utilities. We are actually not after any specific applications: it's all up to the participants to surprise us.
We have already received submissions in all five categories; Business being the one with most entries so far, and Lifestyle and Utilities having less entries than the others at the moment.
Can you tell us more about the UIQ Demo Suite 2007 and where it is likely to be used?
The purpose of UIQ Open, and the resulting UIQ Demo Suite 2007, is to gather a selection of great applications that showcase aspects of what you can do on an open platform such as UIQ 3. These applications will be installed on phones used by UIQ Technology staff and used to demonstrate the capabilities of UIQ 3 when meeting people during business meetings with licensees and operators, at tradeshows, conferences and events, etc. The Demo Suite will also be promoted on the UIQ Technology web site at www.uiq.com, resulting in high visibility and promotion of the winning entries, as well as assisting UIQ Technology in our marketing activities. In short, a win-win situation both for us and our developers.
As the name indicates, this Demo Suite will be used during the whole of 2007.
Can you tell us more about the prizes on offer?
Ten applications will be awarded a set of prizes: two applications in each of the five categories described above.
Each winner, besides having their application featured in the UIQ Demo suite 2007, will receive a prize package including:
- 1 phone (Sony Ericsson W950)
- 1 invitation to an UIQ Fast Track event, valid during 2007
- 1 Accredited Symbian Developer exam fee
- a $1000 Motricity Marketing Package
- a $1000 Handango featured product placement
In addition to this official prize package, each winner will also receive a VistaMax IDE 2.0 for UIQ 3 license from Wirelexsoft.
Submission of entries to the competition is open until 18th February 2007.
Further resources
- You can learn more about the UIQ Developer Program here.
- More information and full entry details for UIQ Open are available here.
- There is further useful information for UIQ development on the Sony Ericsson Developer World website.