USA vs WORLD: Phandroid Contest Sparks Global Outrage!

expansion2By the feedback we’ve received from our “Phone-A-Day Give Away” contest, one might think we spilled millions of gallons of oil into global waters. But we didn’t… that was BP. We merely launched an Android Application website and tried to run an awesome contest.

That self-proclaimed “awesome contest” was limited to United States residents, and Kevin (comment #50 on the contest post) assumed correctly:

trying to run a LEGAL worldwide giveaway is a nightmare if not impossible. There are a number of conflicting laws from different countries out there. You would truly be surprised to discover how hard it is to give something away for free. I would suspect that these legal difficulties are what is restricting phandroid.com from running an international contest.

Legal shmeegal. I’m opening up the contest to anyone in the world so please go back and read the updated rules. Basically, if you’re from anywhere outside of the United States the prize is a flat $250 paid out via PayPal in hopes you can procure a similarly awesome phone. USA contestants have seen their cash offering bumped up from $200 to $250 in accordance.

I’m not sure of the legal ramifications, but I guess taking the “shoot now, ask questions later” approach will be worth it for all our global fans who want to partake in the launch festivities.

This leaves one huge group who may still feel alienated: those without Android Phones. It’s impossible to please everyone, and for our launch contest we had two main objectives:

  1. To create a contest that rewards our loyal readers and members for their participation
  2. To create the momentum needed to make AndroidApplications.com the best resource possible

For obvious reasons, we chose the contest approach/method that achieved both of these objectives. I just want to add, though, that without an Android Phone you can still test applications running a virtual machine (takes some work and no GPS unfortunately). Or you could use a friend’s phone or even visit a local mobile store with Android Phones and test apps on those. I know it’s not the optimal solution… just trying to help. Perhaps we’ll have a contest focused on those without Android Phones in the near future.

Hope this makes all our global friends happy!

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