Mobility Mind

Google releases Android SDK and issues $10 million challenge

As promised, Google has released its Android Software Development Kit. Developers can visit their website to learn more about the SDK, and download the SDK for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X environments. You can bet developers are already all over the SDK.

More than that, Google has kickstarted the third party application development with a US$10 million bounty. So how would you like to earn a cool US$300,000? In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 2008 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. 10 from the 50 will be selected for further development, with funding of up to US$275,000 and another 10 will receive $100,000.

With Google’s deep pockets, this is a smart move. You can bet that they will receive hundreds or even thousands of entries for the applications. So when the first handsets with Android come out late next year, customers will already have 3rd party applications alongside the Google ones.

This is an opportunity for Palm OS developers to expand their scope and hedge their bets. Since both Android and the new Palm OS are based on Linux, the applications should be able to run on both platforms with a little work.