Mark Ruddock can see the future glowing brightly on the screen of his BlackBerry.
As chief executive officer of Viigo Inc., a Toronto-based software development company, Mr. Ruddock helms one of a growing contingent of small firms seeking to establish themselves as software kingpins on the mobile Web.
In doing so, Mr. Ruddock and other entrepreneurs are standing at the forefront of what is expected to be the biggest technology opportunity since the PC revolution of the 1980s.
“This marketplace is the most rapid-growing application marketplace the world has ever seen,” Mr. Ruddock said. “This is a marketplace that will completely dwarf the computer industry and its growth.”
Once considered a giant tease with few practical uses, the mobile Internet is finally starting to deliver on its potential. Viigo's software, for instance, provides users with up-to-the-minute news and content feeds pushed out over the Web.
“All of a sudden we are now dealing with the inverse of where we were before,” Mr. Ruddock said. “Now you've got this pull of unrealized potential where these devices are essentially starting to exceed the software that is available on them … that's where Viigo's mandate comes into play.”
Another early player is Seattle-based Pelago Inc., the first company to receive an investment from iFund, a $100-million (U.S.) private fund based in California. (The fund is not connected to Apple Inc.)
Pelago's first product, Whrrl, melds elements of social networking with local search functions to allow users to see places their friends enjoy visiting in real time through a mapping interface. With $7-million from iFund, the program launched Friday through the App Store.
Pelago was founded by Jeff Holden, a former Amazon.com executive who helped build the Internet retail giant's personalization services that recommend products based on a user's browsing and buying habits.
“This will be bigger than the PC revolution,” said Mr. Holden, who counts among his backers Bezos Expeditions, which manages the personal venture capital investments of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
At the height of the PC wars of the 1980s, Apple opted to charge developers a fee to create programs for their platform while Microsoft didn't charge for access to Windows, Mr. Holden said. That led to more products being developed for Windows, helping it to become the standard global operating system.
This time around, Apple has learned from its mistakes, he said. “Developers have to bet on the platform first and then consumers flock to the platform because the products that are there are so great.”
