One of the things that Google announced with Android (though they’ve revised the rules once already) was a competition with between $25,000 and $275,000 in prize money for the best mobile applications on Android.

Today’s ‘One More Thing…’ announcement from Steve Jobs during the iPhone SDK event was for John Doerr from the VC Partners Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers announcing that they’ve created a $100 million fund to invest in the development of applications for the iPhone. You can find the FAQ here - Kleiner has one of the better track records of picking good tech firms to fund. Gaining their funding would be a huge leg up for any developer !

Frankly I prefer Apple’s approach - it seems a little more professional and a little less like a competition for students !