Nokia India is tapping into local talent to develop localised applications on its handsets. The phone maker has developed 1,200 apps till now from ideas it received from Indian users.

The company does this through a contest where it invites users to share their ideas, which if selected, would be available on Lumia phones through the ‘Windows Phone Store’.

In the first edition of the contest last year, Nokia received 38,000 app ideas out of which the company is developing around 1,500 apps. This includes apps related to giving traffic update to users, individual privacy app for hiding pictures, videos and messages. Apps such as ‘Tweetalyst’ which provides an analysis to Twitter user about followers and retweets.

“The idea behind such contests is to involve the masses to send their ideas – which they think, is relevant in our daily lives. Developing an app is easy with our developers and coders, but the main struggle is the idea,” P. Balaji, Managing Director, Nokia India, told reporters here.

Nokia is now going for the second edition of the contest. The contest called “Nokia Lumia your wish is my app”, offers a grand prize of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh to two runners-up. The company will accept entries till February 24.

“This year, we are expecting around 50,000 entries and we will develop around 4,000 apps out of those. App culture today is a way of living and superior smartphones, constant connection to the Internet and content has ensured that apps have woven themselves ever deeper into our daily routines,” Balaji said.

> ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in

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