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Big in Japan, an application house focusing on mobile platforms and set up by entrepreneur Alexander Muse, and developers Rylan Barnes & Jason Hudgins, saw off the successful conclusion of Google’s first Android Developer Challenge. Hudgins helped create Tunewiki, standing among the winners, and Barnes was the main developer of GoCart, renamed as ShopSavvy, bringing the team $275,000 for being among the 10 winners of the contest. This comes in preparation for next month’s launch of the first Android-based HTC phones from T-Mobile.

Muse handed over the contest money to Barnes to supply his work on ShopSavvy, though an amount of $700,000 is expected to be financed by Architel LP, owned by Muse. The money will thus be spent upon securing deals with big box retailers who can implement ShopSavvy in their stores, both online and offline to help consumers. Big in Japan shall feature its next iteration of a “buy it now” function early next year. The function will allow users to make a price comparison and immediately purchase through an online vendor. Muse is confident that with the affiliate revenues ShopSavvy will be kept as a free app.

Big in Japan isn’t stopping here though, as they intend to launch a second Android Developer Challenge next year, following next month’s official Android launch. This time around, the phase will be about creating apps for real-world usage. Big in Japan will also participate in the competition, trying out several other apps it has got up its sleeve.