Android has got the Store, and some Apps, now where are the Phones?
Its been a busy week for the Android Development team. On Thursday, it released the early details of its Android Market and positions itself as being the place for “open” application distribution. In explaining their unusual name choice, the Android Development team writes on their blog, “We chose the term “market” rather than “store” because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available.” Hope our friends in Cupertino heard that one. To publish content in the Android Market, developers will only need to register as a merchant, upload and describe their content, and then publish it. Android users will then be able to find and install any uploaded content from their Android device. Love it or Hate it? Android users will be able to rate the content in a feedback system similar to Youtube. A beta version of the Market will ship on the first Android handsets and will, at a minimum, include support for free content. Sounds simple simply wonderful doesn’t it? Hit the jump for the winners!
Now on to the Apps, the Android Development team also announced Thursday the winners of their Android Developer Challenge I. Out of a field of 50 applications, ten were chosen to receive the top $275,000 prize and ten were chosen for the runner up $100,000 prize. Here is a short list of some of the winners:
- GoCart by Rylan Barnes. ($275,000 Prize) Scan a product’s barcode with your phone’s camera and view all the best prices online and at nearby, local stores.
- Locale by Carter Jernigan, Clare Bayley, Jasper Lin, Christina Wright. ($275,000 Prize) Locale is an advanced settings manager that automatically changes your phone’s settings based on conditions, such as location.
- Wertago byKelvin Cheung,Teresa Ko, Peter Ree, Robert Sarvis, Douglas Yeung. ($275,000 Prize) The mobile application nightlifers have been waiting for. Find the hottest parties in town and connect with friends and others all night long like the Big Blackberry Bold Party at Boy Genius’s October 2nd!
- Maverick by Virgil Dobjanschi. ($100,000 Prize) Maverick is a multimedia enabled, Google Talk compatible instant messenger and a Google Blogger publishing tool which runs on the Android Platform.
- ShareYourBoard by Mikhail Ksenzov. ($100,000 Prize) ShareYourBoard is an Android application for capturing, processing and sharing whiteboard data.
- Cooking Capsules by Mary Ann Cotter, Muthu Ramadoss. ($100,000 Prize) Inspiration for novices and chefs alike, Cooking Capsules puts a fresh, elegant and portable new way to cook in the palm of your hand.
We got some cool apps and an open concept store but where are the phones? The HTC Dream still remains elusive, with only a few FCC drawings, a crude demo video or two, an unconfirmed feature set, and some creative markups to confirm its existence. Come on Google, T-Mobile, and HTC, throw us a bone and get on with the phone already. We want to run these applications on more than an emulator.
Tags: Adroid Development Challenge, Android, Android Application, Android Market, application store, google
I’m working on an app that rickrolls yourself. Anybody interested in paying $999 for this?
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Damn it! I want an Android device now! w/ at&t 3G.
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at&t isnt even in the OHA so I doubt they’re gonna get this phone.
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lol what att 3g?
there is non within like a 20 mile radius of me.
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This is probably not going to be even close to as good as the app store for the iPhone…
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Att is part of the OHA.
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The good apps may match or exceed the App Store, but it will only take a few pieces of malware to make Google reconsider the whole idea of an unobstructed path for developers. Also, there’s no kill switch (allegedly) and thus you won’t be able to block malicious apps. Nice. Of course, when complaints of malware start rolling in, BGR and others will criticize Google for lack of oversight, because criticizing is what blogs do best.
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Android on a Palm Treo Pro is my idea of Heaven.
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@Steve
At&t is not in the OHA. the only mobile operators are
China Mobile
KDDI Corporation
NTT DoCoMo
Sprint/Nextel
T-Mobile
Telecom Italia
Telefonica
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LOL @ Perspective
Do you honestly think Google and the Android developers would actually pave the way for anyone to easily distribute malware via the apps market? I think they have a pretty good understanding of what they need to do to protect users. I’m sure they’ve got it all under control.
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AT&T sucks, I hate it. I can’t wait to get out of it. But I do like my iphone, but that is AT&T’s only saving grace in my opinion.
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To steve, Att is not a member of the OHA and honestly it might be a little to late to join the party. It”s like google is hosting this awesum exclusive party where T-mobile is a rock star and ATT thought they were just too cool to attend. Now since ATT never RSVP they arnt on the list so their options are to either pay the doorman to get in or wait for the next party. I know that as an ATT customer you have the option to try to crash the party by unlocking the htc phone but since it’s not made for ATT 3g network it will only work on edge.
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I work for Google and I am a beta tester for the android phone (it is called G1). The OS is nicer than s60, but it is nowhere near the iphone,… and the phone suck. It’s the HTC dream. It’s twice as thick as my iPhone, the keys from the keyboards are way too small. The battery with 0 usage lasts only 2-3 days MAX. I gave the phone to my wife because it was unsuable, she hated it and went back to her BJII. Market Place is OK. Youtube is nasty on this device. Zooming on maps is not as cool as on the iphone.
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The poster above (toomanysecrets) is full of sh… Nice try iPhone fan..
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@toomanysecrets
Yeah, I find your comment really believable. Ive enough prototype pics & videos to safely say the keys are not small. have you seen the darth vader video? Another thing thats fishy about your post is you saying you gave the phone to your wife.. when the phone hasnt even been released.
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Android is the best thing to be happening in the mobile space right now. Can’t wait to get the real devices and hack them to do all crazy stuff. Thanks for the coverage.
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hi im the guy tomanysecrets’ wife is bangin when he is not home, i like the g1 i cant wait to have one of my own i hate having to erase the browser history all the time. google maps works fine as we always find the lovers lane when we run out of supplies. the keyboard works great and is spaced apart very well!!!
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Hello, I am the owner of google.com and a personal freind of steve jobs . The said truth is that Tomanysecrets is correct If we didnt have google.com, google maps, google docs, google aps, gmail, adsence adword, google laps, google sync our hands in youtube and myspace and countless others we would have no aps at all. Steve said it himself that the iphone was the best phone ever made and steve is my hero and should be yours. Tomanysecrets is once again correct it’s our rule that all of our testers must stop testing their asigned phones months before the release date and give them away to loved ones. It’s called thinking outside of box and is our way of doing things and btw stevie likes it that way. Yeah i can call him stevie only a close freind call him that.
People just dont realize just because we are the number one dot com company it doesnt mean we know anything about mobile aps.
If you belive my lyes then you are stupid enough to beleive the crap tomanysecretes wrote. No way in hell is he for real.
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I’m curious about this idea that a phone needs to “come to AT&T”. It’s a GSM phone, and as long as the proper radios are in there, it’d work right? That’s what unlocked phones are right? Am I missing something?
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Yes harry but here lays the issue. The 3g radio on this device is one that will only work with Tmobiles 3g network. Its a shame that there isn’t a US 3g standard but it’s only fair since unlocked ATT phones wont be able to connect to Tmobiles 3g network either. As i said earlier Tmobile is an android rockstar and. Att with its too cool ATTidude refuses to join the party. So if you are with ATT and if you want to listen to some Android Rock N Roll you will need to change your radio station to Tmo
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Thanks jdslim for the explanation. Is AT&T not being an OHA member enough to make the chance of an Android phone with their specific 3g frequency unlikely? I would think there’s still a nice market to go after there, without their membership. Or, can AT&T do something to block Android phones from ever working on their network.
You mentioned “this device” and I can understand that the rumored Dream’s ties to T-mobile, but I’m interested in subsequent devices down the line.
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This is just the first device to be released with android software. The software is trully key to googles success with in the mobile market. Like windows mobile this software will be availbe on many diffrent types of divices where the iiphone software will be exclusive to the iphone.
Now you asked if ATT could block someone from using an unlocked android phone on their network, I really doubt they have that type of control but it might not be an issue. We all read specs on the new divice but I havent read anywhere how this device connects to the internet. If android requires a specific access point and servers to access the internet like the blackberries and sidekick do. Getting it unlocked would be useless if the network you try to use doesnt support it. That why its not practical to use an unlocked sidekick with ATT because without being subscribed to sidekick feature the phone is as usefull as the basic free nokia you get for signing up for service
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Thanks again for your insight. Like I mentioned, I’m not interested so much in the Dream (nor is this article even about phones specifically), so I’ll just have to wait and see how this pans out in the next 6 months. I’ve been dying for a new phone since the start of the year and Android is the solution that seem to really fit my desires.
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Engadget has already posted pictures of the phone.
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Now if I could just re-flash my Tilt to run Android….
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