15
Jeff Kao was supposed to go to law school this fall, until a phone call from Google Inc. prompted him to put those plans on hold.
On Thursday, the University of Waterloo graduate found out the cellphone application he and his four friends spent more than six months designing in his parents' living room was one of 10 winners of Google's Android Developer Challenge.
That means their program, Ecorio, will be one of the first applications capable of running on Google's new mobile operating system, Android, when smart phones equipped with the software go on sale this fall.
It also means Mr. Kao and his friends will soon have $275,000 (U.S.) in prize money to divvy up.
Jeff Kao, front, with friends, from left, Taneem Talukdar, Gary Pong and Jason Wong, developed Ecorio, a smart phone application that was named one of 10 winners of Google’s Android Developer Challenge. (Sami Siva/The Globe and Mail)
Related Articles
As the battle over the smart phone market intensifies, consumers are demanding more control over the functionality of their devices. Manufacturers and telecom providers are responding by taking the locks off their platforms in an attempt to entice developers to create new applications, and independent designers such as Mr. Kao and his friends are reaping the rewards.
"Just as everybody has a different desktop background and different preferences for what applications are on their PC desktop ... people want to have more control over what is on the screen of their mobile device," said Chris Hazelton, a market research analyst at 451 Group in Boston.
Manufacturers believe allowing users to customize smart phones with applications will lead to increased sales and provide a leg up in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
When Apple Inc. launched the iPhone 3G on July 11, the company also unveiled the App Store, an online bazaar for games and other software designed to allow users to customize their devices. The response was overwhelming; more than 60 million applications were downloaded in the first month.
On Thursday, Google followed suit when it announced plans for the Android Marketplace, a similar online destination where Android users will be able to download applications to tailor their device.
Although competitors such as Research In Motion Ltd., Palm Inc., Nokia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have thousands of developers creating applications for their mobile devices, none have established a marketplace as visible as Apple's App Store, which can be accessed through the company's iTunes music service.
"I think everyone wants to have one," said Allen Nogee, an analyst with the research firm In-Stat who expects Apple's competitors to begin to heavily promote their own application services.
RIM, for example, offers dozens of applications through its BlackBerry website, but rather than promoting its entire mobile software warehouse, the company has chosen to spotlight specific applications developed by partner companies, such as Facebook, SAP and IBM.
Over the weekend, various technology websites reported that Microsoft is also rumoured to be working on its own Windows Mobile application store, tentatively dubbed Skymarket.
The Android Marketplace will feature a feedback and ratings system similar to the one employed by video-sharing website YouTube, according to a post on Google's official blog. After registering as a "merchant," developers can upload their applications, with a description, set the price and publish it for Android users.
The submission process for Apple's App Store is similar, but Apple has come under fire in recent weeks for the strict, and often secretive, way it vets applications. Apple must approve all applications before they are made available through iTunes and maintains an internal "kill switch" that can shut down applications deemed offensive or malicious.
Some developers have expressed frustration after their applications have been rejected by Apple or pulled from the App Store, often without an explanation.
Analysts expect Google's marketplace will be more open, in keeping with the company's philosophy.
Apple allows developers to keep 70 per cent of the revenue from the applications they create, and the App Store has already led to some big paydays for small companies and individual programmers.
Although Google has yet to reveal how it plans to monetize the Android Marketplace, Mr. Kao and his business partners are already looking into sponsorship and advertising deals to help turn Ecorio into a success.
Investors have picked up on the growing popularity of mobile applications and are pouring millions of dollars into funds designed to bankroll startups in this sector.
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has already announced a handful of investments for its $100-million iFund, while the $150-million BlackBerry Partners Fund - backed by RBC Venture Partners, Thomson Reuters, JLA Ventures and RIM - has yet to announce an investment since its creation in May.
Google's Android contest received more than 1,800 submissions and doled out $10-million to the winners, including a $100,000 prize to Ottawa-based semi-finalist Mikhail Ksenzov for his ShareYourBoard application.
The Ecorio application designed by Mr. Kao and his friends uses the GPS chip inside the yet-to-be-released Google-branded smart phone to track where a user travels and how fast they get there. Using this data, the application calculates the user's carbon footprint while suggesting car pool and public transit options for their regular travel routes.
