By Cho Jin-seo Staff Reporter Mobile software engineers in Korea are showing lukewarm attitudes toward Google's newly announced mobile phone platform even though the U.S. giant promised lucrative cash prizes for developers. Google said Monday that it will provide $10 million to 50 teams of developers that build mobile phone applications for its Android platform. Announced last week, the Android comprises of a phone operating system and accessories, which is similar to the role of Microsoft Windows on PCs but it is supposed to be free of charge and more open. The news spread fast to major software developers' communities and forums on Web sites. Some of them were excited, but most remained suspicious of Google's intentions. South Korea has one of the largest pools of mobile software engineers, thanks to the presence of big phone manufacturers Samsung, LG and Pantech. ``I read the terms and conditions of the Android. I think Google is playing with us, and their slogan `don't be evil' is just words,'' said a user called ``feanor'' on KLDP.org, the largest online forum of open source software developers in Korea. ``My understanding of this document is this: if it does not bring money to us (Google), we will revoke the license at any time.'' ``I suspect that Google is not a company that will let people do whatever they want,'' said another user named Kwon. Last week, Google announced that it and 33 other firms from around the world have teamed up for the Android project with a goal to ``market innovative new products faster and at much lower costs,'' than existing mobile phones. Korea's Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics joined as major partners in the Android team, but they said that they have little idea about how and what they will be making as members of the alliance. The company then showed an open, free software development kit for the Android platform on Monday. The firm said that it will award cash prizes ranging from $25,000 to $275,000 to developers whose applications are picked by a panel of judges by May 2008. ``We've built some interesting applications for Android but the best applications are not here yet and that's because they're going to be written by developers,'' said Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of Google, in a statement. ``We'd like to reward these developers and recognize them as much as possible.'' Many foreign telecom firms such as NTT DoCoMo (Japan), Mobile China, Sprint (the United States) and T-Mobile (Germany) are founding members of the Google Android Alliance and they are planning to deploy the first Google Phones in Europe and North America in the second half of next year. Telecom companies in Korea have been lukewarm toward it, since the free and open software programs for mobile phones can severely erode their profits from services like e-mail, games and mobile Internet, for which they are charging heavy fees. indizio@koreatimes.co.kr