The best thing about having lots of money is that you can throw it around, and make pretty much anything happen a lot more quickly. That's what Google's doing to get coders to create apps for the Android OS:

Today, the team is releasing an early look at the Android SDK for developers interested in building applications for Android. To get things rolling, we've also announced the Android Developer Challenge, which provides $10 million in awards for developers who build great applications for Android. Read more on the new Android Developers blog to learn about this exciting mobile platform.

[emphasis mine]
Even if Google isn't worth $109 bil, it still has enough capital to attract attention to its own causes and agenda. See: CTIA vs. Google.