Last week was all about Apple. It captured the interest of the entire tech blogosphere with the announcements of the IPhone SDK and the IPhone integration with MS-Exchange. And on top of that, Kleiner Perkins launched a new $100 million fund to finance IPhone application development.
First, I commend Apple for turning the IPhone into a (profitable) platform by providing an SDK. There are going to be tons of developers who are going to jump all over this.
Secondly, the Exchange integration is brilliant. This will allow business users to take a serious look at the IPhone (However, as a blackberry user, I'm not sold on the soft keyboard). However, I wonder how MS feels about this. I think this helps the position of Exchange (and by extension the server OS) but opening up the business crowd to another competitor besides RIM can't be good for Windows Mobile (or Windows Mobile developers).
Now, the IFund. Assuming that Kleiner expects a 10x return, is there $1 billion worth of opportunity in IPhone apps in the near term? I'm not sure about this. Apple is going to provide "official" support to Kleiner which, I'm sure, will help exit valuations but how much revenue can a developer with a single app contribute? Look for aggregation and/or consolidation plays here.
Why Apple Will Dominate Next Gen Computing - readwriteweb.com
iPhone Exchange Support; Did Microsoft Make a Mistake? - readwriteweb.com
Apple Opens iPhone But Key Restrictions Remain - wired.com
Apple Targeting Business World for the iPhone - slashdot.org
Apple and Kleiner Perkins launching $100 million iFund for iPhone Developers - valleywag.com
iPhone SDK Limitation: Only One User-Made App Running Concurrently, No Background Processes - gizmodo.com
iPhone SDK Available Today for Free, $99 to Publish Your Apps - gizmodo.com
Here's an interesting development:
Sun to Bring Java to the iPhone via the SDK - gizmodo.com
Or maybe not: Sun dreams the impossible Java on Jesus Phone dream - theregister.co.uk
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