Android SDK appears - with prizes

By Stephen Withers
Monday, 12 November 2007 23:47

Mobility

Google has begun previewing the software developer kit for the Open Handset Alliance's Android mobile phone platform, and if the thought of new toys isn't enough to grab your attention the company has sweetened the pot with a $US10 million programming competition.

The SDK is available in three versions covering Windows, Mac OS X (on Intel) and Linux (on i386). Android programs are written in Java, and the SDK includes development tools and an Android phone emulator.

The Android SDK can be used in conjunction with JDK 5 or 6, Apache Ant 1.6.5 or later (1.7 or later for Windows) or Eclipse 3.2 or 3.3. Eclipse users may download a plugin that integrates support for Android development.

The first phase of the programming competition only requires applications to run on the emulator. "Awards will be given to the developers whose applications leverage all that the Android platform has to offer in order to provide consumers with the most compelling experiences," Google officials said, providing entrants with a free hand in terms of the function of their entries.

Applications must be received between January 2 and March 3, 2008.

$US5 million from the prize pool will be distributed as follows: the "50 most promising" entries will each receive $US25,000 to fund further development. Those preliminary winners will be have a month to further develop their applications before a second round of judging with ten prizes of $US275,000 and another ten of $US100,000.

Unlike some competitions, developers retain all rights to their entries.

The remaining $US5 million will be offered in the second developer challenge, which will be announced when the first Android-based handsets ship in the second half of 2008.

Details of the Android Developer Challenge are available at the Android section of Google Code.