A platform is only as good as the software available for it – just ask your nearest bitter WebOS fan. And while Samsung’s Galaxy Note (and soon it’s big brother the Galaxy Note 10.1) have been met with mostly positive buzz, there’s still only a few apps in the Android Market that take advantage of its unique S-Pen stylus and active digitizer. Samsung hopes to change that, encouraging developers to create new apps for the S-Pen with the Galaxy Note S Pen Challenge. Devs, listen up: this could be worth your while to the tune of $100,000.

The idea is simple. Create an application using Samsung’s S-Pen SDK, then submit it for the company’s approval between now and April 2nd. Samsung will choose the top apps, highlight them, and distribute the moolah between the top 14 winners. The best app (as judged by Samsung) will get $100,000, with 2nd and 3rd place getting $50,000 and $25,000 respectively. Ten Honorable Mention runners up and onw winner of a publicly selected popular vote will get $2,000 each. Considering that even very good apps in the Android Market carry no assurance of financial success, that’s some very compelling incentive.

Prospective applicants, keep in mind that Samsung has the drawing, notation, and other fairly standard uses of the pen-based medium included with the Galaxy Note. Try for something new: game designers could try an Operation-style surgery game, or engineers could come up with a circuit board simulator.  A utility for teaching calligraphy in Japanese, Chinese or Korean would go over well, or you could use the S-Pen’s ability to sense proximity for a mine sweeper-style game with an extra dimension. These ideas are on the house folks – get to work and submit your apps to Samsung by April 2nd.

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