Samsung Mobile today announced the Galaxy Note S Pen App Challenge. The company wants developers to create apps specifically tailored for the Samsung Galaxy Note and its S Pen stylus using the S Pen Software Developer Kit. Over $200,000 will be awarded to developers with the best apps.
The contest begins today and begins on April 2, 2012. The public will get to vote on the best apps in the following week and Samsung will announce the winners on April 16th. Those of you worthy of such a prestigious and noble challenge can enter at galaxyspenappchallenge.com. There you’ll also find the S Pen SDK, which gives developers the tools necessary to integrate the stylus’s unique functionality into a new or existing Android app.
The best overall app will receive the grand prize of $100,000. Second and third place apps will each be awarded $50,000 and $25,000 respectively. The popular choice award will be given to the app with the most public votes and comes with a comparably small, but still generous $2,000. Finally, Samsung will break down the app submissions into ten different categories — games, media, sports, social, lifestyle, travel, education, productivity, entertainment and other — and pick a winner for each to all receive $2,000 and a Galaxy Note.
Despite somewhat lukewarm reviews for the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Android handset vendor has been heavily promoting the device and touting it as the first real phone/tablet hybrid. This contest is an obvious testament. The device is quite powerful, but its bulkiness (due mostly to the large 5.3-inch display) has been widely criticized as uncomfortable in the hand.