Android Developer Challenge

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.

Developers 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 September, 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 40% of the final judging score.

Along with the public ranking, a team of Google-selected judges will evaluate the applications. Their scores will constitute 60% of the final score.

For full details of the ADC 2 process, please see the official Terms and Conditions.

Eligibility

The ADC 2 contest is open only to applications that have not been made publicly available through the Android Market prior to August 1, 2009. 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.

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

For full details of eligibility, please see the official Terms and Conditions.

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

May 27 - Google I/O: ADC 2 announced
July 13: Full Terms and Conditions made available
Beginning in August: submission site opens, developers submit apps
August 31: submission site closes
September: ADC2 client/scoring app goes up on Market; users begin reviewing apps
October (estimated): first-round judging ends
November (estimated): final judging ends, winners announced