Motorola announced a widget building contest through its MOTODEV program.

Widgets are miniature applications that run on a homescreen instead of opening a new screen or window. The concept became popular on Apple Macintosh computers a few years ago and quickly found its in way into mobile phones. Meanwhile, developer contests are common in the mobile phone business as a method of encouraging third-party support for new handsets and programming technologies.

Motorola’s VE66 device now includes a widgets development framework, officials said.

Motorola will accept entries until Feb. 27, 2009 for Best Widget in a Category, Best Local Content and Best Use of APIs. Winners will be announced in the spring.

Prizes include cash, mobile phone hardware and marketing support.