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Back in May of this year RIM and QNX opened up a competition to university students in China to encourage them to create applications. With in excess of 140 universities taking part plus 58 test centres and 2 joint labs being set up in China we once again see 100% support from RIM towards application development.

Today the winners have been announced and the lucky few take away with them a cash prize, a BlackBerry PlayBook and also the opportunity to participate in an internship at one of ten partner companies in China - a fine prize if you ask me.

It's geat to see RIM supporting young developers on a global basis. 

You can catch the full press release below:

Beijing, China - Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) and its subsidiary, QNX Software Systems, today honored the winners of the BlackBerry® application contest for students in China. Students from more than 140 universities participated and collectively submitted more than 200 applications.

A key part of RIM's university program in China, the application contest was announced in May this year with an aim to nurture the spirit of innovation among young Chinese developers. In addition, 58 test centers and 2 joint labs have been established in the country, leveraging the sponsorship from RIM and featuring BlackBerry and QNX technologies and products.

RIM and QNX Software Systems announced the winning applications at an award ceremony attended by Mr. Yang Jun, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Education in China, and Ms. Josiane Simon, Counselor and Senior Trade Commissioner of Canada to China.

Grand prize winners of the contest will each receive a cash prize, a BlackBerry® PlayBookTM tablet, and an opportunity to participate in an internship program offered by ten partner companies including Audi, COSCO, China Unicom, China UnionPay, Digital China, Founder, Harman, Nationsky, NetQin and NeuSoft, as well as RIM-subsidiary Torch Mobile.

"We are thrilled by the response and creative ideas submitted by university students in China," said Lee Simmons, Managing Director, China, Research In Motion. "The application contest has provided students with more opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge in the exciting and rapid growing smartphone apps marketplace.

"As we prepare for the launch of BlackBerry 10 in China, students are already showing tremendous interest in the new generation platform. Some of the applications submitted in the contest have also now been enabled to run on the BlackBerry 10 platform. There are remarkable opportunities in the mobile landscape for developers and RIM will continue the efforts to support the talented Chinese developer community," added Simmons.

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