Kleiner’s iFund Manager On Cracking The iPad’s Immersive Code

Following Kleiner Perkins' iFund "Doubling Down" event today, I got the chance to speak with iFund managing partner Matt Murphy . Simply put, Murphy, who also managed the first iFund, thinks the opportunity with the iPad will be huge — potentially bigger than the first iFund. Obviously, Kleiner wouldn't pump another $100 million into the fund if it didn't believe that, but Murphy offered some insight into the firm's thinking. While much of the focus has been on what the iPad will do as a consumer device, Murphy makes the case for how well it should work as a revenue-generating machine for the companies developing for it. He noted that of the 14 companies that are currently a part of the iFund (3 of which are in stealth mode), four of them are already profitable just two years after the fund's launch. He attributes this to three main things: the freemium model, Apple's payment structure, and micro-payments.