Google wants a bite of Apple’s Apps store.
The search king on Thursday awarded 20 developers cash for applications developed for its Linux-based mobile operating system Android. Google gave 10 winners awards of $275,000 each and 10 semi-finalists $100,000.
Google's award to Android applications developers marks the latest batch of backing for next-generation apps on mobile devices that move software control increasingly away from carriers. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in March announced its $100 million iFund, a pool of venture capital funding it has been dispersing to seed development for Apple's iPhone Apps store.
The Android Developer Challenge competition “was designed to support the developer community and spark innovation on the Android platform by awarding developers with cash prizes,” Google said in a statement.
Google said that nearly 1,800 developers entered the applications competition. Winners shared similarities in taking advantage of Android’s GPS and social-networking capabilities. Winners were chosen by 100 judges from the Open Handset Alliance, the joint developer with Google on Android.
The Open Handset Alliance is a group of 34 telecommunications, software, and hardware companies committed to promoting open standards for mobile devices.
Android Developer Challenge winners included:
Cab4me, an application that uses Android’s Google Maps and GPS, allows people to order a cab to their exact destination without knowing the address.
Ecorio helps people calculate their carbon footprint when traveling and enables them to reduce, offset, and share their experience. GPS tracks users to suggest carpools and other transportation.
Life360 is a messaging and neighborhood-oriented social-networking application that helps people stay in touch with family and their local community. It uses Android’s networking features.
PicSay allows people to add photo captions and corrections and enables then to share via email, blog, or photo-sharing sites, making use of Android’s user interface.
TuneWiki can play audio and video and display song lyrics. It creates a social network for members to share music info and synchronize lyrics. TuneWiki uses GPS, Google Maps, and YouTube.
Compare Everywhere is an application that lets people scan barcodes by camera to check prices to determine if they are getting good deals. It also features reviews, shopping lists, and wish lists. Compare Everywhere uses GPS for nearby stores and Google Maps.
GoCart’s GPS application can use a phone’s camera to scan bar codes and search for best prices of similar products in nearby brick-and-mortar stores and online.
Locale is an application that can automatically change people’s phone settings to presets dialed in for particular locations. For example, using GPS, a phone could change to vibrate mode when its user arrives at work.
Softrace was created for people to meet online to compete in races. The application uses Android’s location API to track users’ movement to calculate position in races.
Wertago is an application that is intended to help people track hot nightlife locations and to make plans with friends. It gives location-based search results and offers social-networking features.
Earlier this month, Apple announced its Apps store had delivered 60 million downloads that did sales of $30 million in its first month. Apple expects to accelerate its $1 million-a-day sales of iPhone applications.
The first phone based on Google’s Android is set for a November 27 release by T-Mobile. That phone is expected to be made by Taiwan-based HTC.