TechCrunch today featured a guest posting by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, partnered with John Doerr, Bing Gordon, Chi-Hua Chien and Ellen Pao. It is a fairly short and succinct post that I would recommend for anyone that has interested in developing applications/games, or just with interested in the tech world in general.

The article highlights the future of the e-economy. It delves a little bit into the history of the internet and social mediums, reminding us of where everything got started a mere 15 years ago. All of this while encouraging us to look forward to the future through the lens of the iPad and iFund.

For those who aren’t familiar with the iFund, it’s basically funding for companies to encourage development of the next great thing on Apple products like the iPhone and now iPad. It started out two years ago when Apple and Kleiner Perkins got together and announced they were going to throw out $100 Million to entrepreneurs to build mobile apps for their iPhone.

Now the fund features 14 ventures in fields of communication, gaming, publishing, media, mobile advertising, and mobile commerce. That’s a big push to help people get started with developing applications, services, and games for their mobile platform. Fourteen funded organizations by Apple.

Kleiner Perkins summarized it best: “If you can’t INVENT the future, the next best thing is to FUND it.”

While the program has been overwhelmingly successful, it did come at a price. The $100 Million originally invested into the iFund has run dry. But this sad news comes with the brightest of silver linings. The iFund is “doubling down” there will be an increase of another $100 Million to budding companies out there to continue programing for the Apple mobile platform. Which means the race begins again.

Clearly Apple is highly invested in the mobile platform, and in the development of applications. Once more I would encourage everyone to have a look over the full article, but if you’re a bottom line kind of person just keep in mind this quote from the article:

“…one day Bill Joy showed me a beta version of Mosaic, the FIRST web browser. It was magic. Bill said “John, I have NO idea where this is going. You just better dive in.”

The rest of the ‘90s were a ONCE-in-a-lifetime experience. Entrepreneurs created the Web and great ventures – Netscape, Amazon, EBay, Google, and others. And they changed our lives. Silicon Valley became the Florence of the New, Networked Economy.

The advent of the iPad feels like deja-vu, like it’s happening all over again. Not once, but TWICE-in-a-lifetime.”

Encouraging words for developers to get on the train, before the iFund dries up again.