It looks like Nokia, or at least their investment arm is looking at virtual worlds.
The Wall Street Journal today is reporting that Nokia Growth Partners, with $350 million under management, is actively looking to invest in virtual worlds. Reporting from the VentureWire Technology Showcase in Redwood City, Calif., today, the news service writes that Mary McDowell, executive vice president and chief development officer at Nokia, said the fund is “particularly interested in investing in start-ups innovating in payments and transactions, analytics and advertising, and gaming and virtual worlds.”
Virtual worlds might seem an odd investment for the Nokia at first glance, but they might be thinking:
- Social networks will naturally evolve to 3D
- Virtual worlds are all about entertainment and outside of games and streaming videos there isn’t much of that on the Web
- There is great potential for augmented reality in virtual worlds
- Kids get virtual worlds
- Outside of games and social networks, virtual worlds are ripe for virtual goods
Nokia could be looking at any of these or more, but if they have reason to invest in virtual worlds the same could be true for Apple with its iPhone. Especially if they’re coming out with a tablet / e-reader as everyone suspects. Soon they’ll offer a whole suite of mobile devices and what would be better than being able to connect them all with a social network like Facebook? The only problem is they don’t own Facebook and building their own social network would just be foolish. So what better way to come at the market than with something new, from a new angle, something like a virtual world? Plus kids get virtual worlds, maybe all Apple has to do is expand that appeal to older kids and young adults. Hey, it isn’t like they haven’t done it before; they push a consumer based iPhone at the enterprise market and are starting to win converts.
It would be great to see what Apple can do with virtual worlds. I sure hope my suspicion proves correct.
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