The platform wars are going mobile. Whether it’s the iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Windows Mobile, the mobile platform that will win in the end will be the one with the best and broadest collection of applications. To give developers a little extra financial motivation, funds are being set up to invest in them. Google announced a $10 million Android challenge back in November, and Kleiner Perkins announced its $100 million iFund for iPhone-only startups in March. Now, it looks like Research in Motion is about to announce its own $150 million Blackberry Partners Fund (site not up yet) to spur applications and services for its mobile device.
At least, that is what VentureBeat reports in an item that appeared in its feed, but has since been pulled from the site (see headline here. Update: the first link above is now live). According to that post (excerpt):
Research In Motion, the RBC and Thomson Reuters have invested in an $150 million venture investment fund, called the BlackBerry Partners Fund, to support developers of applications running primarily on the Blackberry.
The announcement will be made in Orlando at a convention on Monday.
The venture firm backing the fund is Canada’s JLA Ventures, a Montreal and Toronto firm active in mobile. That firm will co-manage the investing process, together with the investment group of Canada’s largest bank, RBC Venture Partners. RIM, RBC and Thomson are anchor investors in the fund. Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, Research In Motion, is on the advisory board of JLA Ventures.
The fund will focus on Blackberry apps, but will also be free to to invest in startups that develop for other mobile platforms as well. That’s smart because no startup should restrict itself to just one device.
But doesn’t it seem like everyone thinks they need to dangle money in front of startups to attract them to their platform these days? (See also the fbFund for Facebook startups and and the MySpace incubator spinoff Slingshot Labs). What ever happened to simply building the best damn platform in the world and letting the app developers come to you because that’s where all the users are?
Update 2: VentureBeat also has a Q&A with one of teh venture partners here.
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Um… Apple wins. There’s no one that will come close. iPhone wins.
iphone isnt an OS, OSX is. And no, osx on the phone sucks
The OS doesn’t matter. If the hardware sucks, the OS can’t run properly. Apple has already cornered the market and will increase their market share with the new iPhone coming out. They’re so far ahead of everyone at this point it’s ridiculous.
Good to have competition. Let the best mobile platform wind
This is huge. If the 9000 rolls out soon it will slow down IPhone defections. BB’s text interface continues to trump. Iphone needs more text functionality.
Iphone is OK, but not a lot of people out there are interested in getting into Apple Dev Mode, as it’s pretty narrow.
Tonnes of Java programmers, flash programmers, etc.
Anyways, Android is the only serious player here. The other folks are just setting up what I call bulll*** funds. It’s probably all mezzanine financing.
I don’t like the keyboard on iPhones. I will not buy an iPhone until that keyboard is changed, and if that means never, then that is fine because they are too expensive anyway. What phone is picutred in this article? It looks great.
Looks like this is shaping up to be Canada versus the US. Just as the US would beat Canada in a real war, Apple simply has an order of magnitude more resources than RIM.
maravilloso sublime inefable fabuloso magnifico
the url is a semi blank page with a “hint” link that points to Las Vegas. This could be a hoax for all we know.
But I prefer building on java than having to learn yet another language.
“What ever happened to simply building the best damn platform in the world and letting the app developers come to you because that’s where all the users are?”
Simple, network effects. You can have the best technical platform out there, but the network effects are very strong with platforms. Developers flock to where the users are, and users flock to where the applications are. More users begets more developers which begets more users… ect. (and vice versa).
Remember the Ballmer monkey-boy/”GIVE IT UP FOR ME!, YEEEAAHH!”/”Developers!, developers!, developers!, developers!” video? That was the point he was trying to drive home.
The best platform doesn’t always win. See: Betamax and the original Mac OS.
So that is why these funds are set up, to help feed the pig and get the cycle started.
@N: “Just as the US would beat Canada in a real war”
That’s debatable. Last war US and Canada fought, Canada won.
Apple users will support the iphone. Some non users will get a mac. All in all, the PC based interfaces will most likely win out. But the will never be as cool (or chic) as the sexy iPhone. That’s my .02 cents.
Chris W. is a dumbass Mactard.
If you’re designing a website or app for the iPhone, check out this comprehensive PSD file at http://www.320480.com
I love Blackberry because you can type email faster than iPhone. and this is what business wants !
Wow, this is great. It was about time for RIM to do something.
Rick Segal of JLA just did a cross-Canada VC round table talks around VC and he mentioned that JLA was opening a new fund May 12 (or 13) and he mentioned that the firm was SERIOUS about localisation applications. I guess this was what he was referring to.
Google’s 10 million is a pittance compared to this.
But, Google has sustainable hype surrounding Android + the general ferocity of the OSS community, so the barrier they need to scale is not as high as it is for the iPhone (no background applications!) and the BlackBerry (existing applications are so entrenched it’s insane) I suppose.
As for why money talks in this funding stuff…
Well, I use to write a lot of hobbyist software a long time ago.
Now I don’t, because I’m busy with life and a government that pretends we’re not in a recession. The $10M/$100M/$150M is a big incentive to people who would like to but otherwise couldn’t / can’t play with a platform and develop that awesome new idea they had for it.
@AW. The ifund and this “fund” is not free money. This fund is an investment therefore, you give them a stake of your company. Google just gives you the cash.
We are developing iphone and android apps. It is obvious that Apple likes walls and tolls and controls, and Google likes to empower developers to do great open apps. I hope that the BB takes the Google approach.
So funny that this turns into an iPhone bashing thread.
@Mike :”Iphone is OK, but not a lot of people out there are interested in getting into Apple Dev Mode, as it’s pretty narrow.”
- Actually, Developing on the OS X platform is much more pleasant than Windows. Number of developers does not translate to chance of success. Look at the number of App devs right now vs. windows, but look at the high quality of the 3rd party apps.
@New York City Wedding Photographer: “Apple users will support the iphone. Some non users will get a mac. All in all, the PC based interfaces will most likely win out. But the will never be as cool (or chic) as the sexy iPhone. That’s my .02 cents.”
- Most iPhone owners are not Apple users(unless you count iPod owners). Additionally, the iPhone is currently the most successful smartphone on the market. Not sure where your 2 cents is coming from…
@Erick Schonfeld -
I dont think the winner will have the most broad applications. I think the winner will have the best apps in the verticals that matter the most. Most smartphones are feature stacked but don’t do the features that matter the most really well. There’s a million 3rd party apps for windows mobile, etc.. yet people flocked to a phone with no 3rd party apps, the Iphone.
MS should forget about the Internet and buy RIM instead. The future is in mobile, the web is old news.
@Rajiv I don’t own anything Apple other than an iPod Touch. I just know that with their recent moves to make owning a Mac easier on a Windows-integrated business professional it makes it hard to ignore. Plus, they already have a product that is kicking ass on the market and a new iteration of that product which will kick double-ass when it is released. By that time, they will have 50% of the market locked into 2 year contracts. Which buys them 2 years of time to release a new kickass product.
Interesting to see that the world comes full circle. The operators put together loads of funds back in 1999, 2000 to invest into loads of really innovative application companies as they would all go bust before the operator could sign a deal.. or was it that they saw this as a route to prevent value leaking out of the door ! ( I ran one!)
Here we are again, great platforms, top devices, but still apps are a way off. As a developer, why would I want to back a single platform, I want (need) my application to work on all platforms (web, tv and mobile and all mobile) because if it does, then I will get loads of users, viral effects and a great exit valuation ( the reason for investing). Single platforms limits my user reach and my exit opportunity.
Developers - are you attracted to distribution and users or money that may (will) restrict your ability to grow and exit……
Tony F
Mobile Web 2.0 thinking
http://www.mobileweb20.com
I think some of you are missing the point on this, as I read on Rick’s blog http://ricksegal.typepad.com/p.....d-how.html , this is to fund mobile development independent of platform. Like apple, rim builds device, OS, and possibly most important SERVICES which makes it all useful.
Buy funding companies on any platform, they get foot in the door of the big stuff coming out, and possibly a bit of direction to make sure this stuff is built with RIM in mind.
Why are we rehashing the ‘OS is so important’ debate again, when we are realizing the strength of connected services.
Tony F is on the right track.