RIM: $100M iFund Is Chump Change, Here's $150M

Monday May 12, 2008

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The iPhone isn't the only handheld device with something to prove about it being a mobile computing platform. Today Research In Motion, the maker of Blackberries, along with the Royal Bank of Canada and Thomson Reuters, announced a $150 million venture capital fund "to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry platform and other mobile platforms."

The "BlackBerry Partners Fund," oddly enough, does not require you to be developing for the Blackberry. The fund's press release said it will take a look at apps for other platforms, too. But I suspect - maybe it's the name of the fund, call me crazy - that solutions for BlackBerries will get first crack at the money.

The fund will compete for attention with the $100 million iFund, which Apple announced earlier this year to help jump-start development on iPhone applications and services.

RIM's BlackBerry handhelds are #1 in market share in the US, but some people still don't look at their Java-based platform as a flexible mobile computing platform on par with, say, Windows Mobile. Maybe this huge infusion of cash will change that image.

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Posted By: Sascha Segan

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