14 DAY TRIAL // South Korean mobile phone maker kicked off not too long ago its own competition for developers, the Samsung Application Store Developer Challenge 2009, which ended recently with two happy winners: Ompass World Cities and Cinetrailer. The contest was launched back in October, with developers able to compete based on various criteria, and now the handset vendor announces that there are two Platinum Award winners of the challenge.
Each of the winners received US$100,000 from the company, and the apps that scored best are: - Ompass World Cities, an app produced by Korea-based developer HyongaSoft. Ompass World Cities is a digital compass application that provides global cities’ location coordinates using Augmented Reality. - Cinetrailer, developed by Italy-based DDM Srl. Cinetrailer offers users the latest movie information such as What’s New, Now in Cinema, and Home Video through regular updates.
However, these were not the only prizes that Samsung handed to developers who participated at the competition. The total number of prizes was of thirty-six, and the list included Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards. Winning developers will receive, beside the money prizes, a continuous partnership with the Samsung Application Store. Moreover, they will be the first to receive new models SDK from the company, it seems.
“Through the Samsung Application Store Developer Challenge 2009, we were able to provide a venue to promote mobile applications among general developers as well as the opportunity for developers to generate profits,” said Dr. Hosoo Lee, executive vice president and head of the Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics. “Consumers can also experience a variety of useful applications. In the future, we will continue to promote the Samsung Application Store through various developer-friendly events.”
The mobile phone maker has already launched its Application Store in a series of markets and, as a result of the Developer Challenge 2009, UK, France and Italy mobile phone users that own a Samsung Omnia II (model I8000) will be able to download all of the winning applications for free. The promotional offering is available for a limited period of time, until April 2010, to be more precise.