Bouyed by success of Season 1, Nokia back with app reality show

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When Nokia launched the ‘Your Wish is My App’ contest last year, the idea was to engage with Nokia Lumia users and understand the kind of apps they would want to use. But the response to the event was much beyond what the Finnish phonemaker had bargained for. While they were expecting a maximum of 5,000 entries, by the end of the contest they had to employ Ernst Young to audit the 38,000 ideas. A year down the line, 1,200 of these ideas have become apps, while 300 more are in the pipeline.

Now, the company is once again partnering with NDTV for a second season of what could arguably be the only reality show on apps. This time the company will take in entries from all over the world and fly in the shortlisted contestants to India. While the person suggesting the best idea will be awarded Rs 10 lakh, two runners up each will get Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh each.

Nokia India MD P Balaji said apps are literally governing our lives, especially in a country like India where the access to the Internet is primarily from the phone. “Our youth are very aspirational and seeking to consume, converse and create,” he added, underlining the main reason for the growing popularity of the apps. “Now, about 1.6 billion apps are downloaded a year and that number is expected to grow up to 9 billion in 2016 and it is changing our behaviours.” The company expects to rake in over 50,000 idea this time.

“When training new kids in the kitchen, I ensure they are not made slaves of rules. So when I got an opportunity in the show I had to do it,” explained New York-based chef Vikas Khanna. He says it is also necessary for someone who is not associated with technology to be part of such a show. The other judges are actor Kalki Koechlin, tech entrepreneurs Vishal Gondal and Sanjeev Bickchandani as well as NDTV’s Rajiv Makhni.

The contest is now open and entries can be submitted on the Nokia’s Twitter handle or FB page.

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