This last Tuesday I received an email from the Android Market Seeding Program letting me know the following:
Due to your contribution to the success of Android Market, we would like to present you with a brand new Android device as part of our developer device seeding program. You are receiving this message because you’re one of the top developers in Android Market with one or more of your applications having a 3.5 star or higher rating and more than 5,000 unique downloads.
Very Cool. I wasn’t sure what device I’d get, but further down the email it was mentioned:
You will receive either a Verizon Droid by Motorola or a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in the US will receive either a Droid or Nexus one, based on random distribution.
I’m hoping for a Nexus One only because I’m a T-Mobile customer and I would love to actually USE The phone as well as develop for it.
Why is Google doing this? Plain and simple: Most of us developers who received this have been developing for close to a year or more. That means almost all of us are running on old hardware – eg: G1’s. The new phones have more memory, better displays, multi-touch and most of all … the updated 2.x operating system. The G1 does not have those features. Google is trying to stimulate the growth of the 2.0 market by providing the top devs with new hardware to develop on. Genius. This theory is also shared by the guys at TechCrunch.
Whatever the reason, I’m anxiously awaiting my 2.0 device. I cant wait to develop for it.
Now… if I could only get Microsoft to send me a phone … hmmmmm 🙂
Great job, Donn! What app(s) did you publish?