Google Challenges Developers with $100K Contest for Project Ara

Although Google (GOOG) has officially announced a release window for its modular Project Ara smartphone, smartphone, the company still must hash out several things before the phone can be fully realized. Aside from which physical modules will be available at launch, apps are a big element of the fully customizable device. Google is tackling this concern with a developer contest aimed at designing Project Ara-focused apps, with the first-place winner receiving a whopping $100,000 in cash.

In providing more details on Project Ara at last week’s developer’s conference, Google also laid out the rules for its new app development contest, which will launch in May and run through September, according to TalkAndroid. Google is rounding out the deal by offering up an all-expense-paid trip for the two runner-up teams along with Google-supplied hardware to continue development of their concepts.

Developers can participate in the contest by submitting an abstract describing their project and a hardware loan agreement (lest any of Google’s new tech gets leaked to the public). On its end, Google has partnered with Toshiba to provide a free package with a Unipro bridge and field-programmable gate arrays to help the developers with their work. Drivers and apps for testing will be left up to the individual developers.

The official rules are scheduled to be posted sometime in May; however, winners would be chosen on the likelihood that the module could be employed in daily use and on whether it is unique to the new platform, according to the company. Novelty of the proposal, quality and elegance of the tech implementation, scale of the module’s impact and potential for commercialization also will factor heavily into the final decision.

Now that Google is going full-speed ahead with Project Ara, it makes complete sense that the company would leverage the wider development community to generate some quality app ideas for the new device. While the folks over at Google are undeniably skilled at what they do, the best app ideas don’t necessarily have to come from within the company’s walls. No matter how interesting or novel the idea of a modular smartphone may be, the success of Project Ara will depend squarely on software, which has the power to make or break even the most interesting device.

The idea of a developer contest is also nifty in that it fits with the whole philosophy of the device itself: By opening up the app development process to all developers, Google is truly fulfilling its promise of creating a smartphone that can be individualized, both modularly and with unique apps.