The first four finalist in the BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge 2009, an almost 4 month long competition running from June 1st through September 25th pitting BlackBerry developer against BlackBerry developer to see who can come up with the best applications for the BlackBerry, has announced its first four finalists.
The Finalists are:
Fierce Towers by Nickel Buddy – Fierce Towers is game designed for the BlackBerry Storm where your goal is to control the field by strategically placing upgradable defense towers in an effort to stop waves of enemies.
Astraware Solitaire – Astraware Solitaire features 12 of the most well-known and best-loved single player card games, chosen based on direct feedback and suggestions from Astraware customers. The games are Klondike, Pyramid, Spider, Clock, Yukon, Canfield, Four Seasons, Sultan’s Harem, Idiot’s Delight, Golf, Calculation, and Freecell, and to make the playing experience both familiar and fun, each game has custom gameplay options so everyone can enjoy the games using their favorite variation on the standard rules.
Vision for YouTube by Metova – Vision is a cool, free, YouTube client for the BlackBerry that allows you to stream video right on your BlackBerry. Sure, RIM put out a YouTube client for the BlackBerry Storm, but, Vision for YouTube works on any BlackBerry device OS 4.3.0 and higher.
Expense Manager by Total Wireless Solutions – Expense Manager is a stand alone expense management system for the BlackBerry that helps you in keeping track of your daily expenses and getting reimbursed faster.
by Robb Dunewood on October 29, 2008 · 1 comment
The BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million venture capital fund focusing on BlackBerry application development, has made investments in buzzed, Digby, and WorldMate.
- buzzd, a location-sensitive city guide and social network for mobile devices, has raised $3.2 million in a Series A Preferred Stock financing with BlackBerry Partners Fund, Greycroft Partners, Monitor Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures.
- Digby, a leading mobile commerce service provider, has raised $5.5 million Series B Preferred Stock with the BlackBerry Partners Fund and existing shareholders.
- WorldMate, a company that has paved the way for mobile travel innovation and serves over one million frequent flyers and road warriors around the world, has raised $8 million in a Series C Preferred Stock financing with BlackBerry Partners Fund, Motorola Ventures and AMC Communications.
[Source]
by Robb Dunewood on August 17, 2008 · 1 comment
The BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million venture capital fund focused on applications and services for the BlackBerry and other platforms, has just received a website makeover.
Check it out… BlackBerry Partners Fund
Following the lead of the $10 million Android Developer Challenge from Google and the $100 million iFund started by Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr, Research in Motion, along with RBC and Thomson Reuters, have ponied up $150 million in venture capital to support the development of the next generation of mobile applications.
I am not going to recite the entire press release because you can just read it here. I do want to add, however, that this is a pretty cool idea and should lead to so very innovative applications for the BlackBerry and other mobile platforms.
This kind of reminds me of the the BlackBerry bounty Alex King set up for getting the BlackBerry 8700 to tether to a Mac but on a much much larger scale. Developers come up with pretty good ideas on their own, but, when you incentivise them with the thought of funding or prize money, the software and applications that they come up with can be quite spectacular.
