Google's Launches 2nd Android Developer Contest

coffeeisclassy writes "Google's second Android Developer Contest (ADC2) has started, despite some confusion around how to submit applications. The prizes are different from the first ADC, with each category having prizes of 100k, 50k, and 25k and an overall best of 150k,50k and 25k, meaning the best Android application from ADC2 is eligible for ~250k. The rules seem to allow any application never published before August 1st to compete, and the contest is open through the end of August (so break out your keyboards!). The top prizes are certainly less than that of first ADC, but with the prizes broken down by category, Google may be hoping to inspire some love for less popular categories."

Let's share the prize!

[alain94040]

From the article:

a Participant that is part of a team understands and agrees that if his/her team is selected to receive a Prize, the team is responsible for ensuring the funds are appropriately distributed to each member of the team

Cool! This is the first time that I see Google proactively support a revenue share solution for developers [fairsoftware.net]!

Developers can officially unite, work together, collaborate, and maybe split $100,000. Nice. These are very flexible and open terms on the part of Google.

That's nice...

[pdragon04]

How about you get the phone companies to actually release some new phones to use this stuff?

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[spiffmastercow]

If you code it, they will come.. Of course, they'll tell you they can't include it in their phones because it cuts into their profit margin for long distance calls and SMS messaging.

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[moon3]

Android suffers the same problem and fate with Palm's WebOS. Guess what the main problem is.

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[bill_mcgonigle]

How about you get the phone companies to actually release some new phones to use this stuff?

There's a good chance I'd buy, subsidy-free, an Android phone that had a physical keyboard and ran on a CDMA network. That's the service reliably available here, and in many locations, merits be damned. As far as I know, there is no such phone.

"A mobile phone that can't make calls? Fascinating." - apologies to Grig.

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[pdragon04]

Hell, I'd probably buy anything they've got in the works right now if they offered service on anything but ONE phone with T-Mobile here in the US.

I've been hearing nothing but delay after delay after delay from other carriers since early last year when they started promising phones by the end of 2008.

Google's launches you say?

[spyrochaete]

Google is getting more possessive every day!

Encouraging communication

[TikiTDO]

Nice to see Google doing things like this. I got an Android the first day it was available in Canada, and have been doing my best to show it off to all my friends. Hopefully with stuff like this happening on Google's side, I will not need to wait too long until we're all on the same platform, and can actually start using some of the neat tools contests like this are sure to produce.

Was this just announced?

[JMZero]

...if so, that's garbage. I mean, the prize support is great - but if you're going to take a stab at a big prize like that, you need some time. It seems very likely the winners will be people who were already midway through development.

If their goal is to stimulate new projects and attract broad participation, give a reasonable time frame - at least a few months. Alternatively, if this is a contest that's been open for some time (and it's not immediately obvious from the page linked to) then I take all that back :)

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[TikiTDO]

Hard to say. The linked page says the contest was announced on May 27th, however, the full rules were only released on July 13th. A really dedicated group with a strong vision could have had several months to work on this, but most people are probably just starting up.

For the chunk of change they're talking about though, I'm sure a few people may be willing to put things on hold for a month in order to get something good out. Could also be a great job app if you want to work for Google.

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[Jewbird]

Maybe Google should fire some of their PhDs and hire some people who can design an icon or UI or write an API worth a damn instead.

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[Trepidity]

It depends on who they want to get in, I suppose. I agree it's not going to attract many outsiders in that timeframe. But it might convince a few companies that do mobile app development to spend a month of their time on an Android instead of an iPhone app, and that sort of market-share shifting might be what they're really looking for.

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[Jewbird]

A few months? Google needs a few more years before Android will be ready for primtetime.

It might win!

[Joe Mucchiello]

How many uncensored ninja dictionaries do you think will be submitted?

Two words

[ari_j]

Editors: Edit!

Android on Minix?

[VincenzoRomano]

Maybe someone will dare to try to implement Android directly on Minix [minix3.org] or on L4 [l4hq.org].
That would be a really new thing!

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[kamatsu]

Minix? hah! Architecturally clever, practically useless.

L4 is nice though.

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[VincenzoRomano]

Well, do you think using Windows on mobiles is a better and more practical solution?

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[kamatsu]

No, but you wanted to port a perfectly good Linux distribution for mobiles to Minix or L4.

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[VincenzoRomano]

Nay! I'd like to port Minix or L4 to a mobile, not Android on top of Linux on top of ukernel. That is Android software on top of a ukernel.

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[VincenzoRomano]

... and aye, L4 is nicer.

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[kamatsu]

Good luck actually *using* it though.

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[quadrox]

Why does one never have modpoints when one needs them most? Ugh...