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When I returned from India in March I came back with an idea for a mobile application that I decided to enter in the Android Developers Challenge. The app was a new spin on publishing your mobile photos when you are traveling (if you are curious to hear more I’m happy to demo it).There was only 4 weeks left in the competition, but that was just enough time to build it and polish it up for submission. So on April 14th I submitted my app and went into hibernation for a day or two to combat my sleep deprivation.

Shortly after I learned there was 1788 entries, so I new the competition was going to be stiff. The first judging round was to select the top 100 entries, and ran until around April 30th. After that a second round began where a new set of judges evaluated the top 100 from the previous round to select the top 50. Because my app was a client server app I could see that during the second round judges from Spain, USA, and Japan were demoing my application on May 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th. So this meant i had made it in the top 100 apps (top 5% overall) and now was being evaluated to compete for the top 50 slots. If I scored in the top 50 it would mean 25K USD and entry into the invite only round in June for a bigger prize of 275K USD. So by this point my adrenaline was rushing, I now had a 50% chance of being in the top 50 (top 2% overall).

So I was waiting on pins and needles to receive the results. On Friday May 9th I received an email from google that my app was not in the top 50. So it was disappointing news, but on the other hand I never expected to be in the top 100 in the first place with so many great apps and stiff competition. A lot of people complained about the judging process, and that judges didn’t spend very much time evaluating each entry, I don’t really think it’s worth complaining about. As with any thing in life, the judging is not going to be completely perfect, and if anyone feels their app should have won they should channel that energy into releasing the app for the public to decide. Ultimately it’s not the critics opinion that matters it’s the people that actually use your app.

So with the news I got on Friday I took some time to think about my next moves, and I have decided to go full steam ahead with this idea, firstly concentrating on an iPhone client so I can sell it in the Apple AppStore this summer. I also need to think about how to find a good iPhone developer or two that would like to get involved with this project. I’m going to San Francisco June 8th - 18th, partly for Apple’s WWDC, and also to meet up with some other developers and see where things go from there.

Today I took an 80 kilometer bike ride from Amsterdam to Harlem and then from Harlem along the North Sea Sand Dune bike route up to The Hague. The weather has been incredible and the sand dune route is one of the best I’ve rode in the Netherlands. The end result was lots of time to clear my mind and I’ve returned with renewed energy for my mobile development. I’m excited about what will come next! 2008 is certainly a big year for mobile. By years end there should be at least 10 million people walking around with iPhones, most of which are keen to install applications!