The upcoming developers challenge for the bada platform is said to be very generous and one of a kind. Hundreds of solid monetary prizes are expected to be announced the next Tuesday, whereas the first prizes are rumored to have the potential of making the most victorious developers pretty rich. Samsung seems to invest an incredible amount of money to get the interest of mobile developers for its new platform.

Regardless of bada’s future, the challenge alone is a unique opportunity that one should definitely give a try – due to very good chances to at least win “something”! There are ways though to be more successful than others, and this is the topic if this post: How to win the bada developers challenge?

As in any challenge of this kind (we already know it from Android’s challenge) a set of common judging criteria exists to determine the “score” of each application. These criteria are the following:

• Creativity and Uniqueness. This one will play a principal role. Your app has to be different from others, a good idea with an excellent implementation will make your app stand out against other applicants in the eyes of the judges.
• Functionality. The app has to keep what it promises and first of all run smoothly – no efficiency issues shall arise.
• Usability. Mobile apps get only a small amount of screen space for the interaction with users. There is no place to explain things. Your app has to be intuitive and usable directly right out of the box – without too many explanations. User’s attention is very limited (and so is judge’s) and a valuable commodity. If your app seems to complex it might get only a few seconds worth of attention from the judges – disqualified even before it had a chance to prove itself. User experience has to be smooth.
• Design. Looks do sell. Take this word of advice from an experienced mISV. An app can increase its sales tenfold if you improve its graphics/design. Invest some cash in professional graphics. It is worth it and gives any app instantly a far more professional feel.
• Market value. Your app must be valuable for its circle of users. Although Entertainment/Games apps are valid contestants, you should refrain from overdoing creativity and submitting pure non-sense that is not likely to get used ever (I am talking, for example, about the famous “I am rich” app for iPhone)

In any case, even if you do your best in these criteria, there is still an important aspect you have to always keep in mind: The judges work for Samsung and their aim is to find apps that put bada in the best light. With this said, your app should/could also:

• Use the most differentiated features of bada’s API (e.g. take a look at the sensors).
• Make your app work with bada’s device features, and not only exist in its own problem space. Your app could, for example, use the contacts or calendar or any other components of the platform.
• Graphics are fine, but do make use of the rich UI features provided by the API.
• You might have an app already (maybe even a successful one) for another platform. But you have far better chances (regardless of the official statement) if your app is somehow unique for bada. You see, the interest of Samsung is exactly to offer a showcase of unique apps to the potential customers to explicitly make them choose a device with the bada platform. Basically saying “We have some cool apps that no other platform does!”. Therefore develop a unique app explicitly and only for bada. If you want to use an existing app from your portfolio: make it somehow more valuable for bada, differentiate it.

So before you start developing take a very deep look into the API: what does it allow you to do? What are the most intriguing features? How can you work with the rest of the components of bada? And then start collecting ideas and refining them, until you have a solid understanding of what you would want to do. Once you have the idea, write it down in detail on paper, order the necessary graphics and go on developing it

Related posts:

1. Bada Developers Challenge: Prizes and Categories
2. Challenge and Developer Days announced!
3. Developers mad about iPhone: bada is a new alternative