According to Rob Shaddock, corporate vice president and chief technology officer of Motorola, there is a tremendous opportunity for developers by writing for mobile devices. I wouldn't expect anything else from one of the leading handset makers, but still it makes sense.
"Shaddock suggested that some 900m client units will be sold this year, which suggests that the rate of development of new services and features is giving a large percentage of those units a lifecycle of less than 12 months. Motorola itself expects to sell, this year, more mobile phones than the entire world PC industry put together."
Handsets are more frequently replaced than PCs, and they are soon going to enable a whole new set of application possibilities due to broadband connectivity.
On the other hand, I read recently that revenues from mobile software purchases are starting to sag. Ringtones, applications and other add-ons just aren't booming like they used to, despite the big sales figures for devices. And even the price point of mobile applications for handsets is weakening. Sorry, don't have the reference, but it was in the news recently if you really want to search out the details.
But it's natural to see both opportunity and erosion of profits in any new and evolving industry. It was not so long ago when commentators first expressed their shock and how it was going to become hard to even stay in business as a PC seller. Some completely lost their heads and even predicted that in the future no one could make any money selling PCs. We're close, but the market always ensures that someone can make a few dollars, and it always will.
From
TheRegister