Samsung offering $1.25 million to attract developers to Gear smartwatches
Samsung is very serious about its Tizen platform. It has used the operating system for the new Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Fit wearables, and there is new word that the first Tizen smartphone could be released fairly soon. Of course, having a platform and hardware is only a piece of the puzzle. A much bigger piece is in having a quality app ecosystem.
In order to incentivize developers to create apps for Tizen, and specifically Samsung wearables running Tizen, Samsung is going to be holding the Samsung Gear App Challenge. In order to attract developers, Samsung will be offering $1.25 million in total prize money for the best apps. The challenge will begin on May 8th and will take place around the world at events in South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Brazil, and Russia.
We'll have to see just how many developers take the bait though. Microsoft has done similar things in efforts to bring developers to Windows Phone, and the efforts usually do well to attract smaller developers. But, unless there are users on the platforms, major developers will still hold back.
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