Google chooses 50 finalists in Android Developer Challenge

Google has chosen 50 finalists in the Android Developer Challenge, doling out $1.25 million in the process.

As part of a bid to heighten interest in Android, Google's forthcoming mobile operating system, the company has been running a contest for prospective Android developers to submit their ideas for the platform. A total of 1,788 entries were received from 70 countries.

Android is envisioned as a mobile phone operating system for mass-market phones, not necessarily smart phones like the iPhone or BlackBerry Bold. Google and its partners in the Open Handset Alliance hope to release phones running the software in the second half of this year, although lots of details still have to be worked out between Google and its partners.

Google said 4 companies chose to remain in stealth mode, and therefore aren't listed below. The finalists have until the end of June to submit their entries for the final round of judging, during which Google will award ten $100,000 prizes and ten $275,000 prizes. I pulled together as many Web sites as I could find for the winners; if I missed yours, please leave a comment below or send me an e-mail, and I'll be glad to include it.

• AndroidScan - Jeffrey Sharkey

• Beetaun - Sergey Gritsyuk and Dmitri Shipilov

• BioWallet - Jose Luis Huertas Fernandez

• BreadCrumbz - Amos Yoffe

• CallACab - Konrad Huebner and Henning Boeger

• City Slikkers - PoroCity Media and Virtual Logic Systems

• Commandro - Alex Pisarev, Andrey Tapekha

• Cooking Capsules - Mary Ann Cotter and Muthuselvam Ramadoss

• Diggin - Daniel Johansson, Aramis Waernbaum, Andreas Hedin

• Dyno - Virachat Boondharigaputra

• e-ventr - Michael Zitzelsberger

• Eco2go - Taneem Talukdar, Gary Pong, Jeff Kao and Robert Lam

• Em-Radar - Jack Kwok

• fingerprint - Robert Mickle

• FreeFamilyWatch - Navee Technologies LLC

• goCart - Rylan Barnes

• GolfPlay - Inizziativa Networks

• gWalk - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus ten Hagen, Christian Klinger, Marko Modsching, Rene Scholze

• HandWx - Weathertop Consulting LLC

• IMEasy - Yan Shi

• Jigsaw - Mikhail Ksenzov

• JOYity - Zelfi AG

• LifeAware - Gregory Moore, Aaron L. Obrien, Jawad Akhtar

• Locale - Clare Bayley, Christina Wright, Jasper Lin, Carter Jernigan

• LReady Emergency Manager - Chris Hulls, Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen

• Marvin - Pontier Laurent

• Mobeedo - Sengaro GmbH

• Multiple Facets Instant Messenger - Virgil Dobjanschi

• MyCloset - Mamoru Tokashiki

• PedNav - RouteMe2 Technologies Inc.

• Phonebook 2.0 - Voxmobili

• PicSay - Eric Wijngaard

• PiggyBack - Christophe Petit and Sebastien Petit

• Pocket Journey - Anthony Stevens and Rosie Pongracz

• Rayfarla - Stephen Oldmeadow

• Safety Net - Michael DeJadon

• SocialMonster - Ben Siu-Lung Hui and Tommy Ng

• SplashPlay

• Sustain- Keeping Your Social Network Alive - Niraj Swami

• SynchroSpot - Shaun Terry

• Talkplay - Sung Suh Park

• Teradesk - Jos? Augusto Athayde Ferrarini

• The Weather Channel for Android - The Weather Channel Interactive Inc.

• TuneWiki - TuneWiki Inc.

• Wikitude-the Mobile Travel Guide - Philipp Breuss

• Writing Pad - ShapeWriter Inc