Can someone earn handsomely by writing mobile apps as a freelancer?

[manoj r patil]

Since last few months, there is a boom in the mobile apps market. Now when almost all the countries are having 3G enabled networks (now even growth engines India and China are also there), what would be the scope of mobile apps?

What would have more scope out of the following two:
1. Native platform based on Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry or
2. Generic platform based on JME
...or something different other than this?

I know so far iPhone is numero uno leader for apps but with more smart phones coming to market on different OS, the scenario will change for sure.

Any suggestions/views are welcome.

[Michael Sullivan]

A similar question was asked here...

in that thread I also point to some crossover frameworks that allow you to target multiple mobile devices without writing native code (by using web-development instead).

Games tend to be the biggest seller on the iPhone - which may not be the type if application that most are used to writing.

[manoj r patil]

Thanks Micheal for the pointers.

So basically writing games would be more lucrative than developing utility application. I still see very few vendors in office suite other than Quickoffice...don't know why.

[Tim Holloway]

I think that the reason office apps aren't a big market on mobile devices is that mobile devices aren't generally very kind to people who need to type a lot of data. I bought a wireless keyboard to assist in that for an earlier device, but my latest phone runs Android, and Android has a LOT of work to do yet in the Bluetooth connectivity area.

We have some mobile game development shops locally. Their advertised salary offerings are quite poor compared with more traditional programming positions.

[manoj r patil]

I think the potential for good income is more for mobile game development shops if they can come up with creative games. But then its very crowded market, competition is real tough. May be games targeted for regional community can be good idea.