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Ready, set, go ... it's time to start developing applications for Android. That is if you want to take part in Google's $10 million software-development compeition for the smartphone platform.

Google is hoping the contest will help jumpstart developer support Android, which is backed by 34-member strong Open Handset Coalition (OHC) of major mobile telephony companies, semiconductor manufacturers, and mobile phone and smartphone players.

The competition, which was supposed to launch on January 2nd, begins a little later than expected due to problems Google ran into with its submission system. It is divided into two parts.

Google is accepting application submissions for part one until March 3rd. 50 entries will receive a $25,000 to fund further development—with ten of these eligible to receive an additional $275,000 and another ten $100,000 each.

The second part, where the rest of the prize money will be distributed, won't begin until the first handsets built on Google’s mobile platform become available. It is estimated this won't happen until the second half of this year.

A software development kit (SDK), required to create applications for Android, became available only a week or so after Google introduced the platform last November—so developers have had the chance to work away at supporting Android for some time now.

In fact, just last week a la Mobile became the first company to demonstrate a working gPhone prototype, the Qtek 9090 from OHC member HTC, running actual applications built on Google's open source Android application framework. The startup introduced its own Linux-based operating system for cell phones and smartphones, the Convergent Linux Platform, back in June of 2006.

Its Android applications include a browser, phone dialer, audio player, maps, camera, games, calendar, contacts manager, calculator, tasks manager and notes. Some of these apps run on a graphical user interface developed by a la Mobile.