Google ponying up for mobile apps

The New York Times Bits blog raises an interesting point. Mobile software developers are already developing on too many platforms, including Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Reasearch In Motion, and even the iPhone is opening doors to third-party developers. So why would they want to take on another platform, specifically Google’s Android? It appears that Google has considered this question, too, as they are offering 10 million incentives for developers to give their platform a go. The top 50 applications — and trust us, 50 is a lot of applications — will get $25,000 prizes. It would seem from there (the wording is a big ambiguous) that the finalists ranked 11 through 20 would be eligible for $100,00 each, and the top 10 $275,000. So Google isn’t skimping on the prize money. This is similar to the system Google used for the development of iGoogle gadgets. So there is precedent here. Facebook also has opened a grant fund to reward those who develop applications for their social networking service. [Bits]]]>

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