Comments on: And Now a Blackberry Fund

By: Mobile data adoption on the rise : The Sunjay Times

Mobile data adoption on the rise : The Sunjay Times — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:17:39 +0000

[...] a good time to be a mobile app developer .. there’s money already being pledged for the BlackBerry platform (US$150 Mil) , Google Android platform (US$10 Mil), and the iPhone platform (US$100 Mil). I can see [...]

By: SKhan

SKhan — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:27:02 +0000

The fund will be used to invest in both applications and services for the BlackBerry platform, but it won’t be exclusively to support the Blackberry.

By: Rick Segal

Rick Segal — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:56:46 +0000

Hi Om,
To answer your direct question, it is a VC Fund with no restrictions on the mobile target. We’d want the RIM devices to be on a roadmap but we can (and will) invest in anything regardless of the platform it started on. I am sitting here in Orlando as I type this, having just finished a meeting with a cool iPhone developer who has an amazing little enterprise tracking application. Coming to other platforms and I’m looking at it. It is about the opportunities first.

Thanks,

Rick Segal

By: Sachin

Sachin — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:16:23 +0000

Still I feel it would be hard for RIM and Android to beat the iPhone in apps development.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:50:05 +0000

@ Carl H,

It will depend on what kind of apps are going to be made available. A Skype app, or a Twitter app on any platform might be snapped up, and same goes for say a Last.fm app. I really do have doubts about people paying money for apps. Sure there will be some special case apps that people would buy - like a better email or IM client, but it really has to be good.

I have a lot of phones but there are three or four apps that I can’t live without. Truphone is one. Whisher and Devicescape are the other two. Jaiku and Fring are the others. All are free. Proves your point…

By: TekROI » Lead Stories Opinions » What About Building A Good Platform?

TekROI » Lead Stories Opinions » What About Building A Good Platform? — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:47:59 +0000

[...] the possibilities of a $150mil BlackBerry fund, it gets me thinking about why does RIM (or Apple, or FaceBook, or MySpace) have to put up so much [...]

By: Carl H.

Carl H. — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:45:34 +0000

What I kind want to know is do people actually buy apps for there phone like that, or is this more of a please make more junk for our phones so that we can say people make junk for our phones. I ask this because I have bought two apps for my phone and they usually aren’t worth it. (I use a blackberry 8830) And most of they people that I know with smart phones only use CRM type apps, out side of that I don’t see a whole need for hundreds more useless apps on Handango. I could be wrong but I don’t see this as a big deal we might get a few good games out of it I guess, but brick breaker is all I need!

By: steveballmer

steveballmer — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:36:11 +0000

The ZunePhone Halographic will render EVERYTHING else obsolete!

By: scott

scott — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:43:57 +0000

I would be very interested in your analysis of what key developers think about the various opportunities in the mobile app dev space. I see these funds and contests as good moves by the respective camps to drive mind share to their platforms but in the end the platform, tools, and ecosystem have to stand, evolve, and grow on their own.

I spent a few years as a Macintosh consumer software developer (multimedia tools) and a few years as a mobile infrastructure developer (content provisioning). During my time as a Mac developer I was frustrated by how Steve Jobs did not give a crap about the smaller developers and would crush their worlds without a thought. During my time as a mobile developer I was frustrated with how the carriers stifled innovation through their need to control what software got installed on their phones.

Those experiences had a profound effect on my perspective as a developer/entrepreneur. While consumers and pundits are drooling over the iPhone I am happy to sit on the sidelines for a little while and watch all those foolish iPhone developers learn Objective-C and lock themselves into a dead end path. I however am going to be cheering on the Open Handset Alliance in their efforts to end the dominance of the Open Mobile Alliance. Android is the only game changer as far as I can see.