Nokia Announces Creation of Forum Nokia Champion Reward Program in Recognition of Outstanding Individual Mobile Applications Developers

    ESPOO, Finland, February 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nokia (NYSE:  NOK)
 today announced the creation of Forum Nokia Champion, an exciting new
 recognition and reward program designed acknowledge the best and brightest
 among individual mobile applications developers for their high level of skill
 as developers and their devotion to advancing mobile applications development
 worldwide.
     Membership in the Forum Nokia Champion recognition and reward program is
 by invitation only and selection is based upon developers' extensive
 knowledge of Nokia platforms and related technologies and applications, as
 well as their level of participation in Forum Nokia, the world's largest
 dedicated mobile developer community, with more than 2 million members
 worldwide. Forum Nokia Champion membership is granted for a period of one
 year to outstanding independent mobile applications developers and individual
 employees of developer companies. Forum Nokia will invite new members to this
 reward program every six months.
     Forum Nokia Champion seeks to recognize individual developers, regardless
 of their employment by or affiliation with a developer company - everyone
 from academics to freelance developers, from independent mobile industry
 gurus to corporate IT employees. Enriching and expanding upon Nokia's ongoing
 support for the Forum Nokia developer community, Forum Nokia Champion serves
 as an individual reward and recognition counterpart to the annual recognition
 of developer companies through the Forum Nokia PRO Awards program.
     Forum Nokia Champion membership provides global recognition to leading
 individual developers, allowing them to use the Forum Nokia Champion title
 and qualifier professionally for the term of their membership and showcasing
 their achievements as Forum Nokia Champions through forum.nokia.com and Forum
 Nokia newsletters. Likewise, Forum Nokia Champion events twice-yearly will
 give members the opportunity to meet Nokia experts and fellow Champions to
 exchange ideas and views on developer issues. Champion membership also
 includes access to Nokia sponsored select technical services, invitations to
 select Forum Nokia events and trainings, as well as access to the Forum Nokia
 Champion extranet, where honorees are able to learn how to take advantage of
 various membership benefits.
     Among the first group of inductees into the Forum Nokia Champion program
 are individuals who have distinguished themselves in diverse areas of mobile
 applications development, including:
     - Li Yong Fei - Mr. Li is an accomplished C\C++ and Java programmer
 active in Forum Nokia discussion boards related to Chinese Development and
 Symbian, and a project manager for Wuhan MainTop Technology Development Co.,
 Ltd., Wuhan, China.
     - Luis Henrique Albinati Jr. - A recent graduate from Brazil's National
 Institute of Telecommunications, Mr. Albinati is a bluetooth midlet
 development specialist and contributed to Brazil's Sinapse I.T. Solutions'
 AoW project, a Bluetooth solution for communication between a Nokia S60
 device and desktop application.
     - Nathan Eagle - A Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT's Media Lab, Dr. Eagle is
 the creator of the Reality Mining initiative, which applies artificial
 intelligence techniques on data collected from S60 handsets. He is active in
 S60 related research activities and knowledge sharing in international
 seminars, conferences, events and trainings. His research has been spun out
 into MetroSpark, a mobile matchmaking start-up.
     - Goran Sander - Director of business development for Sweden's
 Synergenix, a 3D Symbian game developer and publisher and Forum Nokia PRO
 member, Mr. Sander is one of the world's leading authorities on 3D mobile
 gaming and a regular participant in conferences and meetings dedicated to
 mobile entertainment where he provides feedback on Nokia platforms, phones
 and technical issues.
     "We are very excited to introduce this first group of Forum Nokia
 Champion developers in recognition of their outstanding talent and dedication
 to advancing mobile applications development around the globe," said Lee
 Epting, vice president, Forum Nokia. "Through the Champion program, Forum
 Nokia continues to expand its support for global mobile applications
 development by honoring the leading individual applications developers from
 around the world and duly recognizing their important contribution to the
 mobile industry."
     More information on the Forum Nokia Champion reward and recognition
 program may be obtained and nominations of outstanding individual mobile
 applications developers for membership in the program are currently being
 accepted online at: www.forum.nokia.com/forumnokiachampion.
     Nokia at 3GSM World Congress mobile site
     Get important Nokia and Forum Nokia information on your mobile phone with
 the Nokia at 3GSM World Congress mobile site! To get a link to the site,
 simply send an SMS containing "3GSM" to +358407799890.
     Or, enter nokia.mobi/3gsm on your mobile phone's browser.
     About Forum Nokia
     Nokia's global developer program, Forum Nokia connects developers to
 tools, technical information, support, and distribution channels they can use
 to build and market applications around the globe. From offices in the U.S.,
 Europe, Japan, China, and Singapore, Forum Nokia provides technical and
 business development support to developers and operators to assist them in
 achieving their goal of successfully launching applications and services to
 consumers and enterprises. More information is available at
 www.forum.nokia.com.
     About Nokia
     Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth
 and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia is dedicated to
 enhancing people's lives and productivity by providing easy-to-use and secure
 products like mobile phones, and solutions for imaging, games, media, mobile
 network operators and businesses. Nokia is a broadly held company with
 listings on five major exchanges.
 
 

SOURCE  Nokia