Yesterday I posted about the D800iDS – a handset from Mitsubishi with an innovative touchscreen clamshell design. With a bit of imagination, like Nintendo with their DS and Wii, Mitsubishi could produce some really great applications and games for the handset.

Well, Mitsubishi is looking to tap into the imaginations of the Japanese public to give them a hand. Today the handset manufacturer announced a competition for developers to design applications for the device with prizes of LCD TVs and DVD recorders on offer. Mitsubishi will provide 30 selected entrants with a software simulator of the D800iDS until its launch and a loan handset once it goes on sale in February.

Homebrew mobile games and applications are quite common in Japan. The operators make developing tools and guides freely available and there are aggregators such as “Appli Get” which host homebrew games and offer revenue shares for homebrew developers. It will definitely be worth keeping an eye on the outcome of the competition.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 9:53 am