Android Developer Challenge winners announced

Google has wrapped up judging on its very first Android Developer Challenge, and some twenty dev shops (or in some cases, individual developers) are finding themselves considerably richer as a result. Of the fifty apps to make it through to the final round, ten have been awarded $275,000 each and another ten have made off with a cool hundred grand -- good coin for some really good ideas. As you might expect of anything being backed by Google and the Android platform, a good number of the finalists made location-based services an integral theme; take grand prize winner Locale, for example, which automatically switches device settings based on your current location (if that's not a "why didn't we think of that?" kind of product, we don't know what is). The more we scan it, the more we realize that the list of winners reads like a who's-who catalog of apps we know we want installed on our Dreams out of the gate -- and more importantly, it looks like Google has a great way here to encourage best-of-breed Android development over the long run.

[who? @ Aug 29th 2008 12:08AM]

Now if they just made an way for iPhone/iPod Touch users to use it... May I suggest an Android app? Someone could make a killing there.

[Isaac @ Aug 29th 2008 12:13AM]

No.

just... no.

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 12:27AM]

http://1001waystodispatchatroll.org

[computer.dude.28 @ Aug 29th 2008 3:12AM]

Look at poor pathetic clak, getting low ranked and posting nothing but apple hyperlinks.
I found an interesting thing a couple days back. Clak had something to say (actual words!), it was funny, and he got highest ranked for what he said. Check it out here.. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/adobe-flash-for-iphone-might-be-a-little-harder-than-we-thought/comments/11120953/

What happened, clak?

[GatgetMan @ Aug 29th 2008 10:31AM]

Install it on the iPhone 3G? Why, so we could use Android apps on EDGE? If Anything, an option to install the iPhone OS on an Android phone... Then at least we could get a signal...

[Jeremy K. @ Aug 29th 2008 12:11AM]

Wow, those are some awesome apps! Think about how awesome the device is going to be when it's released. Android is going to be sweet!

[Flashpoint @ Aug 29th 2008 12:13AM]

Jim Cramer claimed - which very well might happen - that Apple iPhone will sell 10 million units within the next 2 years.

I doubt that in 2 years, many people outside of the tech blog community will know what Android is. Even if they do hear about it, Apple will push iPhone well ahead of the game and put so much anti-android sentiment out about it, that they'll never sell.

That's not a fanboy statement. That is a belief based on real-world circumstances.

[Jeremy K. @ Aug 29th 2008 12:17AM]

I'm practical too, but I think that this is going to be huge. I think in two years, there will be an Android device on every carrier.

[thedesolate1 @ Aug 29th 2008 12:19AM]

By the same market of drones that made the original ipod popular despite it being riddled with DRM?

[Jeremy K. @ Aug 29th 2008 12:19AM]

...except Verizon, of course.

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 29th 2008 12:21AM]

I agree with you however, 10 million in 2 years?
Not true, apple is to sell 45 million in the next 12 months, the story is everywhere

[Quix @ Aug 29th 2008 9:59AM]

Dude, where have you been? Apple has already sold close to 10 million iPhones, if they haven't passed that number already. I'm betting 50 million plus easy over the next 2 years.

I like the idea of Android, but the problem is it has to work on such a vast range of devices. Phones with big screens. Phones with small screens. Phones with touchscreens. Phones without. Phones with physical keyboards. Phones without.

It will be a nightmare to support such a platform. Apple has it much easier, where the hardware is a known element.

[JohnTitor @ Aug 29th 2008 12:57AM]

you're full of more shit than Bill O'Reilly

[Famous by Marital-Association @ Aug 29th 2008 1:29AM]

Um... except that 10 million units in two years ain't jack-poopie compared to millions of units which will sell in the very near future which Android will be able to run on? (Even, maybe... the iPhone???)

Hate to break it to ya, but Apple has always pioneered exploring the realm at the summit of awesome potential- but consistently losing sight of the peak.

IF Apple had left everything open, you could count on the capable Apple Power-Users fixing problems for themselves and the generous ones would dig through forums trying to help others. Instead you have to wait for corporate to make a list, decide on their priorities through a leadership board which assesses the cost of deployment, and then maybe it will get addressed.

With Android, any college kid with enough pizza and caffeine could program an application in no time with a professor to help him troubleshoot for free.

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 2:43AM]

Bob "Fasthands" Johnson - which might very well become true - predicted that you'll become the biggest blowhard on the interwebs.

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 29th 2008 12:17AM]

too bad andriod is a flop.
They could have been useful

[Jeremy K. @ Aug 29th 2008 12:19AM]

trolls... ug

[thrillchuckles @ Aug 29th 2008 12:22AM]

too bad your comment was a flop.
it cou...never could have been useful.
if you hate everything that doesn't have an apple logo, don't waste your and my time by clicking the link.

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 29th 2008 12:23AM]

lmfao!! You call me a trolly cuz andriod failed to be good? Deny much?
:)
Yeah..deny. 45 million iPhones next year, keep up google

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 12:24AM]

failed? IT'S NOT EVEN OUT YET you little shit

[addictist @ Aug 30th 2008 1:44AM]

Your iPod requires iTunes which is iLame!

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 29th 2008 12:34AM]

sigh*
Anyone wanna make bets?
I'm willing to bet actual money that no one outside the tech community will give a shit about andriod and that iPhone will reach it's mark of 45 million units and become a universal platform.
And this is only the start :)

[thrillchuckles @ Aug 29th 2008 12:37AM]

so then that means the techies (i like to think of them as elites) are the ones with the android...and the common folk will brand iphone? give me my scarlet letter then.

[Shyam D @ Aug 29th 2008 12:58AM]

Kind of like how no one outside of the tech community knows about Google right?
Oh btw, Nokia pushes numbers that make 45 million look like a joke. So even if the iPhone does hit that, which i doubt, it still wont matter.
Have fun in your land of ignorance.

PS. iPhone uses an ARM core, which is already a universal platform. Looks like someone beat Apple to the punch.

[Famous by Marital-Association @ Aug 29th 2008 1:34AM]

Yeah "Andriod" may have flopped...
Android is yet to be commercially deployed.

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 29th 2008 1:52AM]

so your comparing nokia to apple's iPhone sells....?
And I'm the dumb one..? Wow.
Well I'll he the smart one since you have mental problems:
Let's compare the iPhones sales figures with the high end nokia phone starting from release? Please do, I would like a good laugh :)

[jshy @ Aug 29th 2008 3:08AM]

Want a good laugh?

Nokia sells about 100 million phones a quarter. That means that by the time the iPhone reaches 45 million sometime in 2009, if analysts are correct that Nokia will have sold over 1 billion phones since the launch of the iPhone.

In the future please don't blindly follow a specific product so closely that you lose a grip on the sales of other competing products.

[riggs @ Aug 29th 2008 9:11AM]

he does that, because he's an idiot.

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 29th 2008 9:50AM]

@jshy and you justify your comment how?
Your comparing 1 phone against nokias 200 crappy phones that they hand out with plans? Please justify yourself cuz were all laughing at your ridiculus statment :D

[haX0r @ Aug 29th 2008 10:09AM]

Hey FuckTard, please enlighten me how Android is a flop when the phones has been RELEASED YET????

I had an iPhone = overated, poor speaker, no copy and paste, fucked up qwerty, etc.

Hey Stupid Fanboi. Go blow Steve Jobs!

[jorvayq @ Aug 29th 2008 11:05AM]

So let me get this straight. You're suggesting that the iphone is awesome based on it being popular and selling a lot?
Last time I checked, Justin Timberlake was popular and sold a lot of records/tickets. I think that just proves that the masses are mundane, and praising the iphone makes you mundane.

Not that I think the iphone is that bad, but the argument that it's great because it sells is just awful.

[fh @ Aug 29th 2008 2:02PM]

History lesson:

Apple lost to Microsoft because Jobs was too stuck-up about his products. The same thing is happening with the iPhone, and history is poised to repeat itself with Google this time:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209100285

[My Ipod beats your computer @ Aug 30th 2008 1:35AM]

iphone... FTW !!!

[sublimewulf @ Aug 29th 2008 12:19AM]

I wish I could install Android on my itouch and stick it to all fan boys out there.

LiNux FTW
Android FTW
GOOGLE FTW

[Nytrojen @ Aug 29th 2008 12:16AM]

What a very fanboyish thing to say

[vbtrash @ Aug 29th 2008 1:57AM]

itouch? wtf is that?

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 2:04AM]

it's a phone based on the classic Divinyls song:

"iDon't want anybody else
When iThink about you
iTouch myself"

[Nytrojen @ Aug 29th 2008 12:22AM]

Unfortunately, I have to agree. Apple also seems to have garnered itself a customer base of pure blind loyalty that only a mainstream cult like Oprah could hope to contend with.

[wpmarshall @ Aug 29th 2008 12:35AM]

Personally I hate the IPhone. I don't own a single gadget by apple, or have anything branded apple installed on my computer. The android platform seems awesome so I'm waiting for that before buying a new phone.

[Paul Chapel @ Aug 29th 2008 12:46AM]

wpmarshall, you're not special because you don't own an Apple product. There's a lot of people who don't own Apple products.

And I don't know why people think Android is going to bring about this great utopia. You're still going to have situations where the cell phone providers are going to gimp certain features. It's not like Google is going to be able to make companies like Verizon and T-Mobile open up their networks to Skype and tethering and file sharing. Anything you do in Android that costs the least amount of bandwidth, you can be sure that the cell providers are going to find a way to make you pay for it.

Furthermore, this consortium that Google has made is going to complicate the platform. You'll be lucky if you don't have a crash prone environment like Windows Mobile or the iPhone 2.0. If 2 companies with decades of experience developing apps can't make their platform stable, what do you think is going to happen with a newbie company like Google?

In other words, Android won't be as impressive as everyone thinks. Just saying.

[djpurpose @ Aug 29th 2008 3:58AM]

I think Android looks awesome. As far as the cell providers limiting features it will be much harder with an open os. If a cell provider tries to lock the gps function to force an extra monthly fee I guarantee it will be corrected by the programmers.

If these ever get released on AT&T I'm all over it.This would even be worth the cost of the unlimited internet.

[Babau @ Aug 29th 2008 12:27AM]

Locale sounds brilliant. This was a concept that actually came up for Optus' MyZooNow application on Symbian a few years ago. I forget if it ever got implemented because the software turned out to be such a goddamned dog, but that idea was excellent.

[wazzupalex @ Aug 29th 2008 4:33AM]

Locale is not an original idea. We're doing the same and there is are Samsung phones that use location and time of day to alter their settings. Oh, and there is Remember The Milk too. Credit where credit due.

[Josh @ Aug 29th 2008 12:28AM]

I love Apple and all, but I wish they would take some cue's from Google and host development challenges like this. It would be an excellent way to advance the iPhone platform even further, instead of continuing the endless barrage of useless apps that continue to inhabit the app store. Seriously, how many damn coin flipping and dice rolling applications could one device POSSIBLY need?

[Sublimewulf @ Aug 29th 2008 12:28AM]

Because I belive in an opensource world where big brother isn't there to moniter every application I run on my device, and believe that the problem with most people, is that they hyperfocus on a brand name like iPod touch/ iPhone, instead of what really matters? I belive the iPod/iPhone is an excellent piece of hardware, but has so much more potential with a Linux OS.

[Paul Chapel @ Aug 29th 2008 12:36AM]

I hate to comment during these Fanboys fests but come on, Linux has largely failed in the market for ten years straight. They don't even have 1 percent of the market. I don't think there are lots of people clamoring for open source outside the tech community. Where is the evidence that anything would be better with Linux, besides servers?

[rxgator @ Aug 29th 2008 12:55AM]

I agree with you and a company that believes in open source. All the "fanboys" commenting negative things are just wasting their own time. Android's goal isn't to beat the iPhone, it is to be "first complete, open, and free mobile platform." If apple wants to exclusively sell (their soul) the iPhone on AT&T for $$$ thats fine. Countless people aren't going to keep up with all this jailbreak/pwnage tool updates that happen every couple months. Freedom is what this country was founded on, its what google is doing with android and you waiting in line for a iPhone 3G isn't going to bring Android down.

[Shyam D @ Aug 29th 2008 1:10AM]

Actually Linux has done very well in the embedded Market.
The difference is that Linux in the embedded Market has taken on a very different form that Linux in the Desktop Market. Most all embedded devices run some form of Linux. The difference is that companies don't open up those platforms for development. In essence they lock down the ability of their software to run anything but THEIR software. In fact a good bit of the R&D put into mobile kernels is due to the mass amount of work that embedded Linux companies have done and open sourced. So a good portion of both the WinMo and iPhone( It's really not OS X) kernels take huge cues from the embedded linux kernels.

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 1:43AM]

how about the success of Firefox?

the success of Linux is not predictive of that for Android. apples(TM) and oranges

[Freakin Ijit @ Aug 29th 2008 7:16AM]

Linux is a big success in the server market and, hands down, a massive top seller in the "wireless router" market (or is the latter considered "embedded" even though customer-accessible?).