Samsung Names Winners in "Free the TV" Developer Challenge

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"It's not the race to get the most apps, it's a race to get the right apps," says Samsung– and they are absolutely correct.

But how do you get the right apps? You throw money at it....

Thus, the Samsung $500,000 Free the TV Developer Challenge.

Olivier Manuel, Director of Content at Samsung, said the company hit 1 million downloads of Samsung TV apps—an industry first–more than a month ago.

Now their Free the TV Developer Challenge in USA has picked 13 winners...

The winning app, walking away with $200,000, is WeDraw, a social game for home, a sort of digital Pictionary.

Gym Box (home workout app) took second place, Armchair Astronaut (hi-def space exploration) was 3rd, and New Mote (social TV listings) won readers' choice.

The most interesting fact is there seemed to be only 56 applications. Thirteen out of 56 won...doesn't seem like bad odds for developers out there.

AND NOW FOR EUROPE...public voting has just started for the 500,000 euro Samsung SmartTV Challenge in Europe

(A quick aside on TVs as a few interesting numbers came out of the Samsung press conference at CES: With 3DTV sales of about 1 million units, Samsung says 3DTV surpasses first-year sales of DVD, HDTV, and Blu-ray. That sounds like a success, despite the controversy. Samsung expects 3DTV sales to grow to 6 million units in 2011 (not just Samsung, of course). But Smart TV will be the larger game with sales expected to be 9 million.)