Program Selects and Provides Go-to-Market Support for Small- to Mid- Sized Developers Seeking Access for Applications and Services to World's Largest Mobile Device Market

ESPOO, Finland, August 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today extended recognition to the initial group of exceptional mobile application developers in its 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series program, designed to provide select small- and mid-sized developers with key business and market support and facilitate access for cutting-edge applications and services to the largest mobile device market in the world today.

The first eight developers recognized in the 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series cleared multiple selection hurdles over the course of the past year as part of the selection process, which included internal Nokia reviews and the screening of application features and functionality by consumer focus groups around the world. Each participant in the 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series was required to demonstrate that their application or service provided specific benefits to Nokia mobile device users not otherwise available, and that a clear market demand existed for such a solution.

The first group of developers in the Innovation Series was recognized for solutions ranging from a mobile web widget development platform to applications for location-based social networking, mobile video streaming, mobile TV-shifting and device data backup, as well as secure enterprise-grade mobile instant messaging. As part of the program, the 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series applications and solutions are showcased in video demonstrations created by Forum Nokia and hosted online at Share on Ovi: http://share.ovi.com/channel/Forum_Nokia.Innovation.

'Nokia is pleased to recognize such an outstanding group of developers and the compelling applications and services that led to their selection as the first participants of our Forum Nokia Innovation Series,' said Tom Libretto, Vice President, Forum Nokia. 'These applications are great examples of the many innovations being created by developers of all sizes around the world. Forum Nokia is proud to provide the technical and business support services that help fuel these creations and we're excited to be able to help put these applications in front of consumers and business users through the Forum Nokia Innovation Series.'

The developers recognized today for the 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series include:

Application: Plusmo

Developer: Plusmo, Inc.

Santa Clara, CA

Plusmo is a leading provider of standards-based mobile widgets that deliver rich personalized experiences for consumers on a broad range of mobile devices. Supported by the Web Run Time availability for S60 3rd Edition devices, the light-weight Web applications are developed using the same well-known Web technologies used to create Web pages - AJAX, CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. Plusmo makes it easy for mobile users to develop widgets for their mobile phones, enabling them to extend social networking, track live sports, get news updates, watch videos, and play games through their mobile phones and PDAs virtually anywhere, anytime. For more information, visit: http://www.plusmo.com.

Application: Whrrl

Developer: Pelago, Inc.

Seattle, WA

Whrrl is a location-based social discovery tool that gives users access to more than 6.5 million points of interest in the U.S. using Nokia's Assisted-Global Positioning System (A GPS) service.