Until this season, Google Ventures partner Wealthy Miner suggested to mobile application startups funded by his company they begin by developing for Apple’s iOS instead of Android. Only previously six several weeks has Google’s Android platform become significant enough on the market it made sense for developers to produce mobile phone applications first with that platform, stated Miner, who co-founded Android prior to being acquired by Google.
He spoke in the VentureBeat conference in Bay Area on Tuesday. “There only agreed to be that lots of more handsets available, but still a far more mature developer ecosystem“ for iOS, Miner stated. However, he added, “That has clearly flipped“ previously six several weeks, as Android has acquired momentum and share of the market. A week ago, comScore reported that within the three several weeks ending in May, Android was the very best smartphone platform within the U.S. with 38 percent of existing devices. It increased quicker than iOS, which arrived at 26.6 %, while Research in Motion’s BlackBerry platform fell to 24.7 %, comScore stated.
One advantage Android has is the fact that developers can easier obtain products to users, Miner stated. For just one factor, they are able to deliver alpha-make sure beta-test versions from the software on Android, including through sideloading towards the phone, without getting to bother with providing them with approved by Apple because of its Application Store. The venture arm of Bing is run purely for investments, with no technology biases enforced by Google product managers or engineers, stated Miner, who helped start the fund in ’09. “
Google has stated many occasions that they’ll measure our performance according to our financial success,“ he stated. The fund has US$100 million to purchase startups yearly. On Tuesday, Miner announced investments in 2 mobile companies: Astrid, that provides an activity management application, and Crittercism, an application platform for support forums that mobile application developers can also add for their applications. He didn’t disclose how big the fund’s investments. Astrid started on Android as well as on Tuesday launched an iOS form of its application.
Miner has become searching toward enterprise mobility, visiting a void on the market that BlackBerry devices filled during age feature phones. Unless of course you will find big changes at RIM, he expects most up to date BlackBerry users to change to a different platform soon. RIM has endured delays of some key products and lately reported declining BlackBerry sales. “I’ve seen some enterprise applications, a number of them decent, for mobile, on Android as well as for iOS, although not nearly enough,“ Miner stated. “To me, that’s an enormous chance, since neither Apple nor Google are actually centered on the enterprise much.“
