DigitalBeat

Qualcomm, the largest wireless chip supplier, has announced it will offer $550,000 to four companies in a business plan competition.

Called the QPrize, the competition comes at a time when Qualcomm is seeking to maintain its spot as the mobile industry’s biggest player (ahead of folks like Texas Instruments, STM and Infineon), now that a whole range of new smartphones and devices have emerged.

Every mobile player, it seems is, developing a “platform,” and Qualcomm doesn’t want to be left out. While Qualcomm hasn’t partaken of the iPhone’s success, the chart below shows it’s had traction providing hardware for other new devices, such as Google’s Android’s phones as well as the Amazon Kindle.

Qualcomm was the seventh largest investor in wireless startup companies last year, according to the chart below, courtesy of wireless industry investment bank Rutberg & Co.

Nobably, corporate investors have climbed to the top of the list and now constitute 8 of the 20 most active in 2008, up from just 4 of the top 20 in 2007, Rutberg points out. That’s significant, because usually corporate venture investing disappears during economic downturns. That corporations have become more active points to how the wireless industry is still booming — driven in part by the smartphone craze as well as the emergence of new devices like the Kindle and netbooks. That’s one more reason we’re holding our MobileBeat conference on July 16. And, by the way, we’ve invited Qualcomm Ventures’ Nagraj Kashyap to speak on our investor’s panel.

The QPrize competition is open to any entrepreneur, and starts with semi-final competitions in each of four markets where Qualcomm Ventures has offices: China, Europe, India and North America. The four winners will each receive $100,000 of convertible note funding and will be invited to a Qualcomm Ventures “CEO Summit” in San Diego, Calif., to compete for the grand prize. The grand prize winner gets an additional $150,000 in convertible venture financing. More here. Deadline is June 30.

Plans will be accepted in the following areas:
• Consumer/enterprise applications and services
• Communication devices
• Semiconductor and component technologies
• Mobile platforms
• Digital media and content
• Healthcare technologies and services
• CleanTech

Are you an entrepreneur or executive active in mobile? Join us at MobileBeat 2009, our mobile conference for industry leaders, where we’ll be debating these ecosystem wars. Sign up soon.

Next Story: First iPhone 3G S video: The auto-focus is cool
Previous Story: Apple hints that Palm’s ability to sync with iTunes may be short-lived

Tags: co:qualcoom