Interesting trend spotting of the mobile market: http://www.businessinsider.com/2013–the-year-ahead-in-mobile-slide-deck-2013-12?op=1
Opinions:
Even when Android clearly dominates in volume, iOS apps (and especially games) continue to generate considerably more revenue. That’s the space to be for app developers, also because there are way fewer devices to support, hence easier to secure compatibility. Drawback: The approval process (that is still non-existent at Google Play) slows things down, and might even lead to no-go. Also: If you are aiming for other markets than mobile, e.g. automotive, Android is a much better choice, but then we are talking primarily B2B. I expect most in-car navigation/multimedia systems to be based on Android.
Also interesting is that there are still new companies getting into the very cluttered mobile advertising space, indicating we are still in the abundant (or thought to be abundant) gold digging phase. Still an opportunity for a startup and still possible to stand out? I believe it’s possible to innovate in terms of achieving better reach and better targeting (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! sit on tons of user information (we users are gullible); possible to piggy-back on that information for third-party?). Make use of the fact that mobiles are location-aware.
Mobile payments or anything else that generates direct revenue counts. Few will win by taking the chance of getting acquired just because of many users (and users only). Hard cash is what matters. Tablets are excellent for e-commerce and even fewer will buy products in shops, where e.g. most multimedia and home electronics shops will go belly-up. Anything that can be in digital form, will be sold in digital form, and the margins are too thin on electronics to sell in shops. Even when it comes to Apple products, considering the unhealthy revenue split between Apple and distributors. TV advertising might paradoxically make more sense (at least for a while) due to the quick-and-easy purchase through “always in the lap” tablets while watching TV shows.