Android Developer Challenge: Google offering $10 million as prize

Google Inc is offering $10 million (euro6.86 million) in prizes for people who build the best software to enhance the company's upcoming cell phone operating system.


As part of the Android Developer Challenge, a panel of judges will pick 50 winners from entries received from January 2 through March
3, 2008. In the first phase of the competition, those winners will each get $25,000 (euro17,148) and be eligible for ten awards of $100,000 (euro68,592) and another ten $275,000 (euro188,627) awards.

The second phase of the competition will feature another $5 million (euro3.43 million) in prize money. Google did not specify how the applications will be judged.

The company only said the winning programmes will “provide consumers with the most compelling experiences.”

Google also released a tool kit for working on the new platform, which is to be released in the second half of next year. Four cell phone manufacturers -- Motorola Inc, Samsung Electronics Co, HTC and LG Electronics Inc -- have agreed to use Android in some of their phones.