Google Contest Spawns Apps, Android Market

EddieC 0 304 Views

Google yesterday announced winners of the Android Developer Challenge, which put up US$10 million in prize money to developers of the best applications for its nascent mobile platform. In doing so, Google also helped to stock the shelves of Android Market, a forthcoming online retail site for Android applications akin to iPhone's App Store.

Development teams of the each received $275,000, the got $100,000. were recognized as finalists.

Many of the top finishers employ location-based services of some kind. There's , which uses the phone's camera to scan a bar code while you're shopping and then price-compares like items from nearby stores and online retailers and provides inventory data and user reviews. , a similar product, also helps manage shopping lists. An extremely clever app is , which combines GoogleMaps, GPS and cell data to hail a cab to your location with just one button-press. No phone call, no directory assistance. You don't even need to know where you are.

It's remarkable that an operating system released only last November has spawned so many great and useful applications, especially when they involve technologies as complex as mobile cell networks, global positioning and the restrictions of embedded programming. The first phones to use Android, which is Linux-based, could be available to consumers as early as October, according to an August 14 report in the New York Times.

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As observed, the Android Developer Challenge plus an official app marketplace changes the game: contests seed useful ideas and a storefront creates a path to users. Early winners’ focus on location-aware utilities highlights two lasting points—mobile apps must solve real problems, and they must behave reliably across many devices and networks.

Practical pre-publish checklist developers should follow:

  • Treat the app as a product: plan QA, crash reporting, basic analytics and an update/support cadence.
  • Test on multiple real devices and carriers in addition to the emulator; verify GPS, camera, sensors and different screen sizes.
  • Sign APKs with a private key and store that key securely—updates must use the same signing key.
  • Minimize requested permissions and explain why they are needed in the app listing. For location use, request only the appropriate permission, for example:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
  • Optimize for battery and network: cache location results, batch network calls and avoid long-running wake locks.

Listing, discoverability and trust: the app title, icon and first few lines of the description carry most discovery weight. Provide clear screenshots, localize descriptions where relevant, keep APK size reasonable and document offline capabilities or data use. Ratings and timely bug-fix updates materially affect long-term visibility.

Security and privacy are differentiators: avoid storing secrets on-device, use secure transport for backend calls, and disclose collected data and its purpose. The ADC showed strong demand for location-aware features; sustained success will come from polished UX, robust cross-device behavior and transparent handling of permissions and user data.

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