Samsung launches a new App Challenge, $800,000 in prizes up for grabs

Samsung has announced that it will be hosting another contest for budding app developers. The electronics manufacturer previously ran an event where developers could submit apps for its web-connected TV’s, but this time the competition centers around app development for its flagship Galaxy smartphones, specifically the new Galaxy S4.

According to Won-Pyo Hong, President and Head of Samsung Electronics Media Solution Center:

[quote qtext=”The Samsung Smart App Challenge will greatly enhance application choices for GALAXY S4 so users can enjoy a valuable experience.” qperson=”” qsource=”” qposition=”center”]

The obvious aim of the event it to strengthen Samsung’s software collection in an attempt to one-up its competitors when it comes to proprietary software. As we all know, unique pieces of software can often be the deciding factor when choosing between two equally good handsets. Think about the choice between Samsung’s TouchWiz or HTC’s Sense, for example.

However, this contest is aimed particularly at apps which work alongside Samsung’s Group Play service, the new Galaxy S4 feature which allows users to share files with each other.

All of the submissions must be built using the Samsung Chord SDK, which will assist developers in creating real-time solutions for multi-group devices.

All entries will be submitted under the “Smart Chord Apps” category, which really means Group Play services, from which a panel of judges will pick the winning entries. Prizes will be handed out to the ten most innovative applications which use group functionality in interesting, useful, and experimental ways.

The prize pot comes in at a mouth-watering $800,000, which will be split amongst the various winners. But as well as a juicy jackpot to motivate the developers, the winners will also receive a variety of promotional benefits and the chance to pitch their app to Samsung Venture Investment after the prize ceremony. A successful pitch could result in even greater rewards and an additional financial investment for the best apps.

Okay, so the majority of us aren’t developers and don’t stand a chance at winning something from the prize pool. But this is good news for the general consumer, too, as it means that we could all be receiving some useful new features for our handsets in the future. At the very least, the Galaxy S4 should see some interesting, and hopefully useful, new apps, providing that the quality of the entries is good enough. Better yet, some of the apps could always be made available for other older Galaxy handsets.

It’s great to see Samsung supporting the development community, and it’s a no-lose situation for consumers. Now we’ll just have to wait and see what the developers can come up with.