> Is the Android Challenge legit or an elaborate form of phishing,
> or even an outright scam of sorts?
> It seems that the challenge has a few glaring problems:
> 1) The rules favor teams and/or individuals with financial
> backing or resources.
> The Challenge is scored in 4 areas. I suggest that Originality
> and Indispensibility are areas that favor contributors equally
> whether they are poor individuals or well funded teams.
> However "Effective Use of the Android Platform" and
> "Polish and Appeal" penalize those with limited financial
> resources. These qualities require more time to implement
> thereby favoring those who could spend more time on the
> challenge than those who responded to the challenge
> in the "Willy Wonka" spirit (believing all had a chance)
> and had to work on the challenge in their spare time.
> 2) Google discontinued support for the Challenge users
> while continuing to support OHA and other stakeholders
> (e.g., device manufacturers, MIT) thereby marginalizing/
> under supporting the Challenge members.
> Using the Android platform, which
> despite being Linux and Java, is no picnic or walk in the park.
> The processing model is *different* (and I'll question it's necessity
> on a Linux platform in another post), the SDK has bugs, the
> documentation has inconsistencies (e.g., look at the various
> places where TableLayout and table row are documented),
> pieces of the SDK were missing (e.g., BT, etc.) and so on.
> And while independents were toiling away trying to slog through
> the Android'isms and bugs, Google was actively supporting members
> of the OHA (are they really on the same SDK version as we are?)
> Are all submitters *really* isolated from those who had more
> inside information? Access to the source?
> 3) Participants who fail to win in round 1 stand to lose even more.
> When you made your submission you agreed that if Google
> or any of the Judges developed your idea you had no recourse.
> What if Google/Judges never had the idea before you submitted it?
> Had not yet visualized it on the Android platform before the
> entries were submitted? Do you think you can get your idea to
> market faster than the multi-billion dollar Google juggernaut?
> In it's most perverse form isn't it all really a way for Google
> to potentially get 1700+ original ideas for which they only
> need to pay for 50?
> /GW
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