The Linux Foundation this week formally launched its Tizen App Challenge, touted as a “skills-based” contest meant to encourage application developers to create new apps that “redefine mobile experiences.” The challenge will award a total of $4.04 million to more than 50 developers of Tizen apps in nine categories.

Developers can submit mutiple entries at TizenAppChallenge.com between now and Nov. 1. Winners will be announced in December, and a formal award ceremony will be held in 2014.

When submitting apps, developers will select among the following nine categories:

Games categories:

• Action, Adventure, Arcade, Sports
• Role Playing, Strategy
• Board, Card/Casino, Puzzle, Word/Trivia, Music, Others

Non-Games categories:

• Productivity, Finance, Utilities
• Education, Reference, Kids
• Music/Video, Entertainment, Photo, Font
• News/Magazine, Sports, Weather
• Social Networking
• Lifestyle, Health, Travel, Navigation

Apps entered in the three games categories will be judged according to their entertainment value, visual design, performance, and controls and input. Apps in the six non-games categories will be judged by their usefulness, visual design, performance, and controls and input. Grand prizes are $200,000 for games categories and $120,000 for non-games categories. Additional prizes of $50,000 will be awarded to the top 10 HTML5 apps.

Developers are being encouraged to use the Tizen v2.2 SDK, available for download from Tizen.org, to develop their apps. Further details on the App Challenge are available at TizenAppChallenge.com.
 

Recent Tizen device news

Shortly after the mid-May release of the Tizen SDK v2.1, Samsung confirmed that it planned to ship a Tizen smartphone this year. A few days later, TechTastic discovered a device in Samsung’s UAPROF systems listed as GT-I8805 (aka Redwood) running Tizen 2.1 on an ARM Cortex-A9 SoC, and offering 1280 x 720 resolution and LTE support. The Tizen Greek Community subsequently leaked photos consistent with the specs reported by TechTastic, and GSMArena noted that it appeared from the leaked photos that Samsung’s new Tizen phone incorporated many features from the latest TouchWiz 5.0 UI, as implemented on the company’s Android-based Galaxy S4.

Although expectations ran high for a July release of the GT-i8805, a Samsung executive reportedly stated last week that the Tizen smartphone’s launch was being pushed out by two months, fueling rampant speculation that Samsung’s enthusiasm for the new Linux-based mobile OS could be waning.

Thus far, the only device Tizen device to be officially released and promoted is Systena Corp’s Tizen tablet. The device offers relatively high-end features, including a 1.4GHz, quad-core Cortex-A9 system-on-chip, 2GB of RAM, and a 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel display.

A short introduction to Tizen appears in the box below. Additional LinuxGizmos Tizen-related article are listed in the Related Posts section below the box.
 

About Tizen Tizen Architecture (click image to enlarge) Basically, Tizen is a cross-architecture, open source software platform based on a comprehensive standards-based HTML5 implementation that was designed to support multiple device segments, including the smartphone, tablet, smart TV, netbook, and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) markets. To achieve this cross-platform flexibility, Tizen uses HTML5 as the main focus for application development, allowing developers to maintain a single codebase. The Tizen platform supports Web applications (HTML, Javascript, CSS) and provides a rich set of services that include an application framework plus content, location, messaging, multimedia, network, social, and system services. Slides from the Tizen Architecture talk at the May 2012 Tizen Developer Conference are available here (pdf file). For further details on Tizen, visit the Tizen project website.