Ottawa, Canada — (press release excerpt) — Espial today announced the Smart Device Developer Contest, an initiative to encourage the development of Java-based applications for the fast growing interactive television (iTV) market. The contest ends July 31, 2002 and will award a total prize pool of $34,000. This contest is focused on building interactive applications for the digital cable set-top-box market, which is predicted to exceed $5.3 billion in worldwide sales in 2005.

“Java is critical in the next phase of the TV market where application portability across every platform is a requirement,” said Jaison Dolvane, president and chief executive officer of Espial. “Our latest contest presents the development community with a challenge and an opportunity to build a working application with the help of some of the top embedded Java programmers in the industry. This contest provides the basis for what truly could be the next 'killer application' for the iTV market.”

Growth of related digital services worldwide are expected to exceed $31 billion per year, resulting in interactive digital cable of more than $98 billion during the next four years. It has been predicted that increases in service revenues will come from advanced video on demand, subscription video on demand, personal video recorders, electronic program guides, and iTV services. It is estimated that one-quarter of US households will use interactive TV by 2004 and three-quarters of all TV commercials will be interactive within five years. Digital set-top-boxes enabling interactive programming and iTV services will be in 55 percent of US homes by the end of 2005.

Participants must build one of the following four iTV applications:

• Interactive Shopping Services — Interactive Shopping Service for iTV is an application allowing users to purchase products while viewing television programs or channels.

• PhotoFairy Photo Sharing Services — The PhotoFairy Photo Service for iTV allows users to manage and share their photos and friends via iTV.

• Sports Betting Services — Sports Betting Service for iTV is an application allowing users to place bets on real-time sports games against other viewers.

• Classic Arcade Games — Arcade games for iTV are gaming applications allowing individuals to play single player games via the set-top-box.

In addition to a $15,000 Grand Prize, a second prize of $10,000 and a third prize of $5,000 will be awarded. Additional categories include best student application, best quality code, most active contest participant, and most supportive community member.

 
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