Apple Lets Developers Choose Their Own Prize In Design Contest

by , 9:00 AM EST, March 30th, 2004

Apple has announced this year's Apple Design Awards contest for the upcoming World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). The WWDC is Apple's annual gathering for Mac developers, and the Apple Design Awards are Apple's effort to "recognizing technical excellence and outstanding achievement in Application Software, QuickTime Content, and new for 2004 -- Performance Demos."

Apple has introduced a couple of new things in this year's Design Awards. The first is that winners in all categories are going to be able to choose their own prize. The company is offering winners their choice of a new 17" PowerBook, or a Power Mac G5. Specs on the machines are listed as being whatever the current model is as of May 1st, so watch the Apple Store for final specs. Each winner also gets a 23" Cinema Display HD and a DVA-ADC adapter.

The thing we are most excited about, however, is a new kind of contest that Apple is adding to the Design Awards. In addition to the traditional software and QuickTime content categories, Apple has added a "Performance Demo" contest. Apple describes this new contest as:

This new contest showcases the performance of shipping products on Apple hardware and software, and products that demonstrate Apple hardware and software technologies in a unique, unexpected, and awe-inspiring manner.

The Performance Demos categories are:

Best Performance Demo for a Shipping Product

Most Innovative Apple Technology Performance Demo

The other categories are as follows:

Apple Design Awards for Application Software
This contest recognizes excellence and outstanding achievement in software design on Mac OS X in the areas of platform innovation, user experience, technology adoption, performance optimizations, and the use of Open Source.

The Application Software categories are:

• Best Product New to Mac OS
• Most Innovative Mac OS X Product
• Best Mac OS X User Experience
• Best Mac OS X Technology Adoption
• Best Mac OS X Open Source Product
• Best Mac OS X Server Solution
• Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product
• Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution
• Best Mac OS X Student Product

Apple Design Awards for QuickTime Content
This contest recognizes technical excellence in authoring, outstanding production value, advanced encoding quality, innovation, and ease of use in content navigation. See Official Contest Rules for details.

The QuickTime Content categories are:

• Best QuickTime Content for Promotion
• Best QuickTime Content for Education
• Best QuickTime Content for Entertainment

To find more information on the Apple Design Awards, visit the WWDC Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Offering winners their choice of portable or desktop is a smart move, and a nice touch. Different things make different people tick, and this way Apple has its developers covered.

It is this new Performance Demo contest, however, that we think is the bee's knees. We love the idea of developers working to find something cool to show off Mac (and/or iPod) stuff, and it takes encouragement from Apple to make things like that happen. There's no better encouragement than a contest like this, especially when it offers more than US$5,000 in prizes. Come on folks, make something cool!

WWDC Information