Mobile Design and Development

Chapter 14. Making Money in Mobile

The mobile industry is worth an estimated one trillion dollars. Trillion-dollar figures get thrown around quite a bit these days, especially after the worldwide economic crisis of 2008 and 2009. But we forget how extremely large a trillion dollars is. To put it into perspective, a trillion dollars is 1,000×$1,000,000,000 (a billion) or 1,000,000×$1,000,000; certainly, it’s not chump change.

Tomi Ahonen, author of Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media (futuretext), puts it into perspective this way:

[The] books business is part of a bigger industry sector called print, which also includes newspapers, magazines, etc. A very big industry indeed. Employing millions on the planet. But is it a trillion dollar industry? No. Only about half that. How about television? Television broadcasts in every country. It’s a media giant. Actually, combined with radio, the broadcasting industry is still nowhere near a trillion, only about half that. How about advertising? Surely that is a giant global industry. Yes, it’s big, but also advertising is worth roughly half a trillion dollars, in very round terms. Well then the IT industry? No, another half trillion there.

Let’s move beyond the tech and media industries—let’s think big. How about bottled water? Drinks, milk, beverages. Let’s make this big. Pepsi, Coca Cola, Red Bull. Tropicana orange juice. Heineken, Budweiser, all the wines from France to Australia. Hard liquor, the vodka martini, shaken not stirred. A good Spyside ...