Samsung is holding a contest for developers that will award 10 entrants a total of $800,000 in prize money along with some company specific benefits. The stipulation is that ‘Smart App Challenge 2013’ entrants must use the Samsung Chord SDK. The Chord SDK allows Samsung devices to connect wirelessly without any additional servers or networks. It can essentially be compared to proprietary ad-hoc functionality, only it’s just for Samsung made devices.
Of course, Samsung is billing the technology as “Group Play,” a service specifically designed for users that want to play multiplayer games or share media back and forth via their mobile devices. The world’s largest smartphone manufacturer is trying to move away from relying on Google’s ecosystem. In other words, the company is looking to add exclusive content to its catalog that would further entice consumers to purchase Samsung devices over rival hardware.
“With Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, Samsung is going to boost [their] mobile ecosystem. At Samsung we will continue to encourage mobile developers to develop new and innovative applications with newly-launched features of Galaxy [the] series. The Samsung Smart App Challenge will greatly enhance application choices for Galaxy S4 so users can enjoy a valuable experience.”- Won-Pyo Hong, President and Head of Samsung Electronics Media Solution Center
To break it down even further, Chord is a java based API (application programming interface) that provides developers with easy access to features like peer-to-peer device discovery, proprietary messaging and wireless file transfers.
To be considered, Apps must be submitted between June 20th and August 31st. In addition, all entries must be sold in the ‘Samsung Apps’ marketplace and use Samsung’s proprietary API for in-app sales and advertisements. Winners will be chosen later in November, and they will be judged for uniqueness, design and potential- Samsung isn’t going to fund an app unless there’s potential that it will succeed commercially after the contest.
A total of 10 winners will be chosen, and along with a cash prize the related apps will be promoted directly by Samsung through its ecosystem and during future press events. Let’s just hope they don’t hire cheesy broadway actors to represent your mobile app or game.
Here are the prize tiers:
- First place (one winner)- $200,000
- Second place (three winners)- $100,000
- Third place (six winners)- $50,000
If you want to participate in the contest you can enter via the Smart App Challenge website, but you must also register your app with Samsung Apps.
This is definitely great for any Samsung device owners, soon you’ll be offered exclusive apps and content which were designed to work specifically with unique features offered by Samsung’s devices. What do you think of the competition? How many developers out there are going to enter?
Source: Samsung