One of the business ideas that people seem to throw at me without cease is that of mobile applications.  For sure, I am surrounded by enough talented people (and seed money) to put together a modest company writing mobile games and personal productivity apps.  The ideation (see: brainstorming) and execution of the games is not the issue.  I am fairly confident that I can do either.
To be frank, the issues I have with becoming a mobile application company is that there are no clear marketing channels.  Both the Apple iTunes Store and the Android Market are primitive ways to distribute products.  There does not yet exist an ecosystem (simple or complex) by which I could market my products more effectively or quickly than the competition.

Whereas in traditional online marketing, I DO know how to use ad networks.  I DO know when and where to use SEO and SEM, and I have found the correct partners to execute local market internet stuff.

However, when I consider mobile phone market, there really is nothing I can do.  Besides just putting up a website, the best I can do is offer fremium versions of my application (or offer 0.99 prices) and hope that enough people pick it up so I can be promoted as a “Top application,” and then rake in the big dollars.  One of the first steps in the mobile application marketing ecosystems is Papayamobile, which helps market Android applications.  I imagine more websites/systems are on their way.

I imagine that if I was brought into a mobile company in my traditional role as Mr. “Fix-It,” I would figure out how to market mobile apps.  But from the outside, it just doesn’t seem worth it yet.

What makes mobile applications successful seems a combination of having a good product, and being lucky.  I would rather start a company where I understood how to market, and how to sell.