Samsung has launched a widget development site, and kicked off the opening with a $20,000 (£12,000) competition.

The Samsung Mobile Innovator (SMI) portal is aimed at helping to promote the development and distribution of the firm's TouchWiz widget technology.

Users are able to access information and resources for building the touch-screen-based widgets for a range of Samsung mobile devices built on Symbian, Windows Mobile or the company's proprietary system that it uses for feature phones.

"Samsung fully recognises the challenges that developers face to develop and market mobile applications to consumers and businesses," said Omar Khan, senior vice president of strategy and product management at Samsung.

"SMI is a global programme focused on giving developers the tools and support they need to develop and market widgets for Samsung's lineup of TouchWiz-based devices and applications for different Samsung phones."

The development platform is based on HTML, JavaScript and CSS, so many web developers will already be familiar with the code required. This allows widgets to work automatically across all three mobile operating systems, as well as appliances such as a Samsung Series-7 television.

To help spur initial adoption of the Samsung Mobile Widget SDK, the company will host a Widget Developer Camp from 11 to 13 September in San Francisco.

In the run up to the camp, developers will be able to create widgets spanning five categories: social media, news/reference, health/fitness, travel/entertainment and humour/fun. At the end of the event, judges will pick a winner in each category and award prizes of $5,000 (£3,000).

A best-in-show will also be decided, with a $20,000 cash prize and an invitation to showcase the application at the CTIA IT & Entertainment 2009 event in San Diego in October.