Despite its flaws, the iPhone has catapulted the smartphone concept going way beyond the typical mobile phone. Its success has had cell phone manufacturers second guessing their long term plans and trying to achieve something similar if not better than the iPhone in upcoming models. But this new trend does not stop in the hardware, but also software and services.

So with the hardware out of the picture, the next great battle will be in the software front, where aggressive strategy have already been rolled out by Apple and Google, who want as many developers as possible working on new applications for the respective platforms. Remember that Google stepped in late last year with Android as an open platform and alternative not only to the iPhone OS, but Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian.

The iFund initiative hosted KPCB offers $100 million in funding for developers who choose to create location based services, social networking, mCommerce, communication, and entertainment applications for the iPhone. On the other hand, Google is hosting the Android Developer Challenge which will provide $10 million in prizes.