Entrepreneurship in mobile application development

The growth of mobile commerce will require development of both demand and supply sides of the market. On the supply side, the development of mobile applications (e.g. games, calendars, search engines) via cellular technologies will occur in a context partially defined by technical development dependencies that arise from the layered nature of mobile hardware and software technologies. This research finds that these technical application development dependencies shape both the strategies employed by entrepreneurs as well as the evolution of the mobile market. In particular, entrepreneurs are faced with technology choices and device uncertainties, while the market experiences fragmentation, intermediation and distribution integration. These results explain, in part, the slow development of mobile commerce in general, provide a basis for understanding future market developments, and are further evidence of the complex interdependency between technological and market evolution.