Want to bag yourself one of the first Nokia N97 handsets in the UK? Well, if you’re of a creative bent why not try your hand at Nokia’s latest competition and design a kick-arse homescreen widget for the forthcoming flagship phone?

For those unfamiliar with widgets, they’re mini software apps that generally work by connecting to the web and updating themselves. If you want to check them out, Nokia already offers its own widget-packed WidSets service, and Vodafone recently started a Widget Manager service for selected Nokia phones.

And Nokia has big widget plans for the N97: it’s going to let users stick them on the home screen, and if you design one that looks sexy enough yours could be among the choices.

Don’t worry if you’re not a software engineer, by the way – this is just about coming up with the look and general function of the widget. You can do so using Photoshop or a similar design package – just download the design pack from Nokia’s competition page, which comes with all the instructions and a template. The deadline is February 27th and the winner will be announced on March 13th.

So are you planning on submitting your own widget? If you’ve already done so, how tricky was it to do? And whether you’re planning on getting involved or not, let us know which sort of widgets you’d like to see Nokia stick on the N97’s homescreen.