Is it a great time to be a mobile developer?

If you are a talented mobile developer, it appears as if you could write your own ticket in the wireless industry today.  Every wireless carrier, handset maker and platform developer is searching for talented developers to join their organization and many are offering some pretty lucrative incentives.  We have even started compiling a guide to mobile Developer contests--there seems to be new one every week-- and the prizes are pretty compelling. Check out our guide here.

But at the same time, it's expensive to be a developer.  With all the different operating systems now available, developers have to make some tough choices -- do they develop for Android, LiMo, Apple, RIM, Microsoft or Symbian, or all of the above? 

There is still very little standardization in the mobile industry, so developers have to test and tweak their applications so they work across all the various platforms and multiple handsets. That type of testing and configuring takes time and development funds.  And funding isn't as easy to get as it used to be. The economy-- and the tightening of the credit market-- is making it very difficult for developers to get financing to help them bring their ideas to fruition. 

Over the past year, the mobile developer ecosystem has become more complex -- yet more compelling. To help developers make some of the tough choices they have to make, FierceMobileContent editor Jason Ankeny took an in-depth look at the iPhone and Android and came up with this list of five things that all iPhone and Android developers need to know. Check it out here. -Sue