Digital Trends

Google has posted an "early look" at the SDK for its Android mobile phone operating system, along with a $10 million contest to pique developer interest.

Google may only have announced its Android mobile phone platform last week, but the company has already posted an "early look" at its Android SDK, available for download now for Windows, Intel-based Macs, and Linux.

To spur interest in the platform, Google has also announced the Android Developer Challenge, which will offer $10 million in awards for mobile applications developed for the Android platform. Google will accept submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008, with the 50 most promising entries receiving a $25,000 award to fund additional development. From those finalists, ten will be eligible to receive an additional $100,000, and another ten will be eligible for a $275,000 award. Google also plans to offer a second challenge after the first Android-enabled handsets reach the market in the second half of 2008.

"We've built some interesting applications for Android but the best applications are not here yet and that's because they're going to be written by developers," said Google co-founder and president Sergey Brin, in a release. "We'd like to reward these developers and recognize them as much as possible."

The contest will be judged by a panel formed from members of the Open Handset Alliance and other technology experts.