Google rallies Android troops
Google last week unveiled the winners of their Android Developer Challenge. Most of the top 20 apps utilize the location capabilities of the Open Handset Alliance’s operating system, but with no phones on the market, Android faces an uphill battle against iPhone.
‘Google wanted twenty very solid, ready-to-launch applications for the new phones,’ says Rosie Pongracz, co-founder of PocketJourney. ‘I think that’s why they held the competition to begin with. That’s our interpretation. Of course nothing has been formalized.’
Travel guide PocketJourney was one of the top 20 apps receiving a $100,000 prize. The top 10 received $275,000. Other notable apps in the geoweb category include Locale, Cab4Me and GoCart. The winners gallery is here.
Google also announced an Android Market, a direct response to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. It doesn’t seem to have done much to quell the widespread scepticism about Android. More on that later.
