Samsung has a problem. It controled 33.1% of the global smartphone marketshare last quarter — Apple was only 17.9% — yet that’s almost entirely in the low-end of the market.

What’s keeping Samsung from conquering the high-end of the market, where all the profit is and which Apple continues to dominate? Software: there is a wide-spread impression amongst consumers that Samsung’s apps just aren’t as good as Apple’s.

That’s a problem Samsung is eager to solve. That’s why they are ponying up $800,000 to developers willing to make great, Galaxy-specific apps.

Just this morning, Samsung announced a global competition aimed at attracting top developers to create apps for Galaxy smartphones. There will be ten winners announced, who will receive a combined $800,000 in prize money.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The company is particularly looking for apps that can be coordinated with Samsung’s ‘Group Play’ service. Group Play is a function highlighted on Samsung’s latest Galaxy S4 smartphone that allows users to share certain content such as photos, games and music at the same time and interact with one another.

“We will continue to encourage mobile developers to develop new and innovative applications with newly-launched features of our Galaxy series,” Won-Pyo Hong, the head of Samsung Electronics’ media solution center, said in a statement.

The Galaxy S4, though a beautiful phone, has a problem with software: it feels gimmicky and half-baked. Samsung has always been a hardware company, but hardware’s increasingly not enough… more than ever, it’s all about the software. Maybe this contest will help Samsung get on more even footing with Apple.

• SourceWall Street Journal