Mobile apps and future of software development

The must for mobile apps, regardless if they are done for iPhone OS, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, newly declared BADA or anything else, is that they should be lightweight, simple to operate by buttons or a stylus, and contain the most-wanted features only. Apps are simple. And it is simple and fast to develop them. In average it takes from 2 up to 4 weeks for developers to understand peculiarities of a new mobile OS and start working on it at a good level. Well, of course it would depend on a developer’s learning abilities, but still .

So, the question is if the recent popularity of mobile apps will influence approaches to development of consumer software?

I bet, it will. Who will need a full-version Microsoft Word with huge number of features one rarely uses if it is impossible to be used on PDA? And how many IT giants will survive if business and individuals ask more and more for simple apps (which require 1-2 developers at maximum) instead of complicated solutions.

The future, (well, with possible exception for large scale enterprises needs) is for simplicity of software used both on desktop and PDA, and adjustable small teams of developers. Or not?