The BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million pool of money focused on apps and services for the RIM-made device, had a little contest of its own (a la Google’s Android developer challenge) and today awarded $150,000 from its venture fund to three companies: Poynt, Strands Social Player and Nobex Radio Companion. The three were named “Best in Show Grand Prize Winners” at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. The winners will be entered into the BlackBerry Partners Fund “Jump Start” program. The developer challenge invited developers to create BlackBerry apps from five categories: Gaming, Multimedia, Personal Productivity and Lifestyle, Enterprise and Web. The grand prize winners were selected from 15 finalists. But judging by the winners, which all fall into the category of music and entertainment, it is either getting increasingly difficult to get developers attention, or $150,000 is simply not enough to get more than a copycat of something already out there. Release.

—Poynt: The company offers a free local search tool that connects people to business, such as movie theaters and retailers. The service uses targeted site browsing, interactive maps, driving directions, GPS, along with show times and movie trailers.

—Strands Social Player: Developed by Strands, the music player includes a social network, which lets you discover new music and connect with people. It shows cover
art and provides artist and song recommendations from over 6 million songs featuring free previews.

—Nobex Radio Companion: Developed by Nobex Technologies, the app shows you what song is playing on any of 2700 radio stations and when you hear a song you like click “Get It!” and it will send you an email with a link to buy the song. More than 100 stations are playable on BlackBerries.