The deadline has been extended for developers to submit apps to the Tizen App Challenge, after a surge in submissions prompted by additional support from a number of mobile platform and software development providers.

Companies to have added support for the open source-based HTML5 mobile platform include game creation platform GameSalad, cross platform development tool provider Marmalade, and game engine provider Havok.

Developers looking to build apps for Tizen now have until 8 December to submit their entries for the contest, which has a $4.04 million prize fund. Judging will take place from 9 December to 17 January.

The prize fund will be split across 50 developers in nine categories. Top prizes are $200,000 in the games categories, and $120,000 in non-game categories.

Games will be judged on entertainment, value, visual design, performance and controls and input, while non-games will be judge on usefulness, visual design, performance and controls and input.

In order to be eligible, developers must submit their app to the Tizen Store and achieve certification for Tizen 2.2. They can then enter via the Tizen App Challenge website.

Tizen is supported by mobile operators Orange and NTT Docomo, and Samsung. The Tizen 3.0 release is due early next year.

The platform has been seen as a way for Samsung to reduce its reliance on Google, which not only creates the Android platform but also many of the core services featured in the Samsung smartphone line.

The South Korean electronics giant previously said it plans to launch a Tizen-powered device by the end of the year, although time is running out to meet this goal with rumours that Samsung is delaying its Tizen development work.