iPhone Developers: £10k prize from o2 Litmus

o2 Litmus, the application developer community for Telefonica’s o2, is running an iPhone Developer competition.

Called The App Showdown, the competition offers a £10,000 prize to the winning application developer.

The judges, well… they’re not an esteemed panel of mobile gods or mobile executives.

Instead — and interestingly — the judging panel is going to be comprised of 100 o2 iPhone customers. Anyone, provided they’re an o2 iPhone customer, can enter to become a judge.

Here’s the criteria that app developers should consider:

O2 is looking for innovative iPhone apps, and we have already been chatting to our customers to find out what they would love to see. Their ideas included:
– An interactive O2 coverage map
– Connecting iPhone to O2 Joggler
– A Bluebook app
– An app that records any sleep-talking you do
– An app that knows if you’re drunk and beeps when you’re near your bus stop to make sure you don’t fall asleep when you should be getting off
– A broadband status app
– An accident kit that prompts you to take emergency contact numbers as well as notes and photos

Naturally, we’ll be asking our iPhone customers to help us pick the winning entry, plus at the mid way point of the two month competition there will be a “drop in” focus group where developers can come along and meet our iPhone customers to test out ideas and receive direct feedback on their apps.

If you’re an iPhone customer and would like to find out how to become a judge in the competition, click “Become a judge” below.

This is the first time I’ve seen o2 Litmus focusing exclusively on iPhone development. When you recognise that o2 have sold more than 1 million iPhones in the UK, it makes a lot of sense, though.

I’m aiming to sit down with the o2 Litmus chaps soon to bring you some good video interviews with them.

Meantime, I strongly recommend checking out o2 Litmus (and registering). If you’re a developer, this is an excellent, excellent opportunity to a) enter to win a pile of cash and b) garner the attention of the o2 Litmus team.

Head over to http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/ for more information.