Vodafone has launched a new mobile widget competition, encouraging developers to vie for a £20,000 top prize. The company will promote the winning widget to one of its major markets, while two runners up receive a £1,000 cash prize.

The widgets are based on the Opera Widget platform, which works on Nokia handsets including the N95. Unlike standard mobile apps, widgets are mini web applications that reside on the phone using what Vodafone labels a "web run time environment", and so should open the playing field up to anyone with basic web skills.

The winners will be judged on usability, innovation and value by panel of mobile industry experts and crucially Vodafone will allow developers to retain the intellectual property rights to the software. The competition closes on April 30th.

You can find out more at Betavine, Vodafone's mobile development community.