Now that the Pebble smartwatch has its own appstore, it’s time to populate it with apps. That can be a bit tricky when most developers are out making apps for more established platforms, but it seems the folks at Pebble have figured out a solution to this problem: kick off an app development contest in which the highest rated submission takes home a grand prize of $5,000. Money talks, as they say, and we have a feeling that amount will get at least a few developers coding.
The $5,000 grand prize isn’t the only thing being handed out in this contest, as the top 16 finalists will net a Pebble Steel of their own. The challenge officially begins today (March 10), and those who are interested in entering have until 5 PM PST on March 23 to submit their apps to the Pebble appstore. Once the submission period comes to a close, the first voting phase begins. This initial phase will see the public voting on their favorite submissions, and after a three day period ending on March 27, Pebble will select the final 16 competitors. After this, the 16 finalists will be matched up in a bracket on March 31, with the app in first place going up against the app in 16th, so forth and so on. Then Pebble users will vote for their favorites in each match up through the Pebble appstore. This elimination round will continue each day until a winner is announced on April 4.
Pebble, of course, has a few rules to go along with this competition. It says the challenge is open to “watchapps, watchfaces, and companion apps,” but those must be submitted on the Pebble appstore and use the Pebble SDK 2.0. Entrants are allowed to submit multiple apps and can even enter the challenge using an existing app. Pebble says paid apps can be submitted in the contest, but the company recommends that you make your app free for the duration of the challenge so more people download it and try it out. If you’re interested in giving this competition a whirl, click the source link below to head over to Pebble’s developer site to enter.