Android Developer Challenge 2

[Muthu Ramadoss]

Cool apps that surprise and delight mobile users—built by developers
like you—are a huge part of the Android vision. To support you in your
efforts, Google launched the Android Developer Challenge, which will
provide awards for great mobile apps built on the Android platform.
ADC 2

Welcome to the Android Developer Challenge 2! You can participate by
developing an application, evaluating and scoring applications, or
both. The sections below provide information about the types of
applications you can enter, as well as the contest information and
dates.

The ADC 2 full terms and conditions will be available soon.

Developers will submit their apps to one of 10 specially-designated
ADC 2 categories (see below) beginning in August. An application can
only be submitted to a single category.

First Round
In late August (final date to be announced), users of Android-powered
handsets that can access the Android Market will be able to obtain a
special ADC 2 judging application from the Android Market. With this
app, they can download, test, and rank applications submitted to the
challenge. Users choosing to participate in the review process will
download submitted apps randomly and will rate them along a number of
criteria, resulting in a final score for each app. The results from
this first round will generate the top 20 applications in each of the
10 categories (200 apps total), which will go into the second round.

Second Round
The top 20 applications in each category will proceed to the second
round. Android users will then be able to download the final
applications and evaluate them in the same manner as during the First
Round using the ADC 2 judging app. At the end of the voting period,
applications in each category will be ranked, with the community vote
constituting 45% of the final judging score.

Along with the public ranking, a team of Google-selected judges will
evaluate the applications. Their scores will constitute 55% of the
final score.
Eligibility

The ADC 2 contest is open only to applications that have not been
published -- whether through Android market, a public web site, or any
other means. An application that has already been made available to
the public (at the time of judging) is ineligible, regardless whether
it is free or sold commercially. Additionally, applications that were
entered in the ADC 1 contest are ineligible for the ADC 2 contest,
regardless whether they were winning apps. Similarly, updated versions
of applications entered in the ADC 1 contest are ineligible for ADC 2.

When you enter an application in the ADC 2, we will make it available
to all contest judges for free, exclusively for the purposes of
judging. If you intend to sell your application after the conclusion
of the contest, you may submit a "trial" version of the application
for judging. We recommend that your trial version include full
functionality, but with a timed expiration, rather than including
limited functionality with no expiration. Judges will evaluate your
application based only on the functionality accessible to them, so it
makes sense to provide the fullest range of capabilities possible in
your contest app.

Teams and business entities may enter applications in the contest, but
each team or entity must designate a single developer entity who will
be responsible for uploading the application. Should the application
be selected as a contest winner, all payments will be sent to the
developer entity only. Further division of funds is the responsibility
of the team leader or business entity representative.

All submitted applications must run on Android 1.5 and be in English.
Categories

* Education/Reference
* Games: Casual/Puzzle
* Games: Arcade/Action
* Social Networking
* Lifestyle
* Productivity/Tools
* Media
* Entertainment
* Travel
* Misc

Awards

Prizes will be distributed as follows; all prizes are in USD:

For each of the 10 categories:

* 1st prize: $100,000
* 2nd prize: $50,000
* 3rd prize: $25,000

Overall (across all categories)

* 1st prize: $150,000 (meaning the overall winner will receive
$250,000)
* 2nd prize: $50,000 (meaning the 2nd prize winner will receive up
to $150,000)
* 3rd prize: $25,000 (meaning the 3rd prize winner will receive up
to $125,000)

In addition, attendees of selected developer events will be provided
with devices intended for use in developing submissions for ADC 2.
Timeline

Note: this timeline is subject to change until the Official Rules are
published.

* May 27 - Google I/O: ADC 2 announced
* June: Full Terms and Conditions made available
* Beginning in August: submission site opens, developers submit
apps
* Approximately 2 weeks later: submission site closes; ADC2 client/
scoring app goes up on Market; users begin reviewing apps
* Mid October: first-round judging ends
* Mid November: final judging ends, winners announced

[Muthu Ramadoss]

My take on the categories:

* Education/Reference
* Misc
* Travel
Submissions will be less. High probability of winning.

* Games: Casual/Puzzle
* Games: Arcade/Action
* Social Networking

* Entertainment
Submissions will be heavy. Low probability of winning.

* Lifestyle
* Productivity/Tools
* Media

Submissions will be moderate. Medium probability of winning.


What's your take? Come on now.. don't feel shy. Sound off freely.

[ram1024]

i am thinking that enough submissions will be shoehorned into the "non-
popular" categories that it won't be quite as "high probabilty" of
winning as you might think :D

i am most concerened about the time frame. 2 months to come up with
an app compelling enough to win 100,000 is rough. as it is i am
having to strip features off the app i would like to build just to get
it down to a reasonable development schedule. luckily the design is
modular enough to where these features can be tacked on seamlessly
later on

when first announced i went through the category list and came up with
apps for every one. dev times on the projects ranged from 6-7 months
down to 3 months. so i had to take a 3 month project and chop it up
even further :(

how much time did people have to create apps in the first challenge?

[Muthu Ramadoss]

Interesting.

Adc1 round1 had like 4+ months
Adc1 round2 had like 2+ months

This time adc2 has only one round of development but 2 rounds of judging and behaving more like adc1-r2.

Public voting is a big change this time, so I guess the apps need to have "mass" appeal.

Final T&C will explain things better hopefully.

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subs...

[ram1024]

i've decided that the 2 month development time is not sufficient for
me to build an application i would consider worthy for the challenge,
so i will build my app more so to learn rather than to compete.

it's going to be a slideshow type visualizer tacked onto an mp3
player. depending on how much time i have i will add customizability
into the mix, gesture controls etc etc

probably healthier than going crazy trying to build something that is
awesome enough to win, with my limited ability

On Jun 2, 7:49 pm, Muthu Ramadoss <muthu.ramad...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Interesting.
>
> Adc1 round1 had like 4+ months
> Adc1 round2 had like 2+ months
>
> This time adc2 has only one round of development but 2 rounds of judging and
> behaving more like adc1-r2.
>
> Public voting is a big change this time, so I guess the apps need to have
> "mass" appeal.
>
> Final T&C will explain things better hopefully.
>

[Ralf]

You can always submit whatever you have in the 2 months period.
R/

[Muthu Ramadoss]

Exactly. If the concept is good, you would have a good chance of winning. So just do it.

take care,
Muthu Ramadoss.

http://linkedin.com/in/tellibitz
http://androidrocks.googlecode.com - Android Consulting.


George Bernard Shaw  - "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."