"iFund" to put $100 million behind iPhone application developers

Bay Partners turned many a head in the financial and software development worlds when it drummed up $10 million dollars last year to fund application development for Facebook. On Friday, San Francisco venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers trumped that offer ten times over, by establishing a $100 million dollar fund to back software development for the Apple iPhone.

Apple, recently released their official iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit), to much anticipation and fanfare. Though software development for the iPhone has been underway in an unofficial form via an unofficial SDK for months now, this move by Apple opens up "legitimate" development to any and all.

The grandeur of the iFund, as it is being called, may drive heavy development of applications geared specifically for the Apple iPhone. The result, in turn, could be delivery of customers to Apple. As the availability of software products for the iPhone increases relative to other devices, customers may be likely to opt for a device with more possibilities. At least, so hopes Kleiner Perkins.