The Nokia Experience and Innovation Center and China Mobile have jointly launched a Windows Phone application development contest that aims to recruit over 1,000 applications over the next four months.

The Nokia Experience and Innovation Center is an entrepreneur support platform established for mobile Internet developers. It provides capital, technology, marketing, and venue support to those developers. The goals of this organization are to select 3,000 innovative ideas and support 300 startup companies in five years. At present, about 1,000 developers and startup companies have registered memberships at the Nokia Experience and Innovation Center.

According to the plans from Nokia Experience and Innovation Center and China Mobile, this contest is open to all Windows Phone application developers. With the aim of recruiting over 1,000 applications in four months, this event will reportedly cover 20,000 developers. The final winners of the contest will gain not only bonuses, but also the marketing resources from Windows Phone app store and China Mobile's app store, Mobile Market.

At present, the Windows Phone is the world's third largest mobile platform, with Microsoft and Nokia being its major drivers. Over the past year, the Windows Phone app store achieved rapid development. The number of Windows Phone apps reached over 160,000 and the monthly downloads were over 200 million. However, the construction of Windows Phone ecosystem still falls behind Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Fu Lei, general manager of Nokia Experience and Innovation Center, told local media that as an emerging platform, the Windows Phone platform needs more support to realize fast growth. Apart from encouraging original applications, the Nokia Experience and Innovation Center will stimulate app transplants from other platforms to the Windows Phone.