The software programs cell phone users have come to love are humbling the mightiest corporations in the mobile phone industry, with all the money now rushing into the so-called apps.
Whether it is Angry Birds, a simple game with a soundtrack of shrieks, or simulated flatulence noises with software like iFart, the real cutting edge at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week seem to be in the apps field.
Nokia, a Finnish company, may make popular mobile phones and lead the world in unit sales, but there are comparatively few apps available for its old operating system, Symbian.
In Barcelona, the big question has been whether Nokia and its new partner, Microsoft, can lure apps developers to fill the Windows Phone 7 operating system with hordes of the pastime programs.
The buzzword is “ecosystem,” meaning a combination of a strong platform like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android with a community of freelance programmers eager to earn big money with add-on software that will catch the masses’ taste.
Where fortunes beckon, even helpers can prosper. In Berlin these days, anyone with a bit of experience in programming apps would be stupid to accept a steady job, one start-up entrepreneur said.
The going rate for software developers in the city is 600 to 1,200 euros ($800 to $1,600) per day. A desperate scramble for talent is underway.
Berlin’s apps industry has sprung up practically overnight. Four years ago, Android and iOS did not exist. Apple did not open its App Store until 2008, but just passed the first 10 billion sold.
An estimated 17 billion apps will be sold this year, generating $15.9 billion, Gartner Research, a respected market tracking company, said recently. By the end of 2014, it estimates that 185 billion apps will have been installed on the world’s phones.
Others have forecast 25 billion dollars in…