[Toh Ahn Ku reporter eyeball@techsuda.com] On December 18th, Samsung Electronics announced the winning entries of the Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013 for Galaxy S4, a global competition for app development using the Samsung Chord SDK.

The challenge ran for approximately three months from May 13 to August 31 and was open to mobile app developers around the world. Its goal was to discover innovative, creative apps that can apply a group management feature to create real-time groups among several smart devices, without a server.

“Following the competition for Galaxy S4, we have launched another app development competition for Galaxy Note, which is currently in progress with a large number of developers participating. We will continue to actively support app developers, and we expect consumers will be able to enjoy Samsung devices in many different ways through innovative, original apps.” said Hong Won-pyo, President of the Samsung Electronics Media Solutions Center.

One first-place winner, three second-place winners, and six third-place winners were selected from entries from 50 countries. First place will receive $200,000, with the second and third places each receiving $100,000 and $50,000, respectively, as well as marketing benefits.

The winning teams of the Challenge are invited to the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) to attend the award ceremony held on Samsung Developer Day. They will also promote their winning entries at the Samsung Electronics Pavilion at MWC 2014, and have the opportunity to be evaluated for investment by Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

The first-place winner of the Smart Chord Apps track, “Dots Out” from Russia, is a flicking game. It features clean-cut design and simple gameplay for players of all ages to enjoy, earning rave reviews from the judges.

Learn more about the winners of the Challenge at the Samsung Apps (www.samsungapps.com) and Challenge (www.smartappchallenge.com) websites.