Yep.Tord wrote: The market for chess programs for mobile phones is huge. It has never been easier and cheaper to reach big amounts of customers than now.
Make that 3-5% max.As an example, Stockfish for iOS has been downloaded by 5479 customers over the last four weeks. Of course this is a free app, and the number of downloads would no doubt have been lower if I charged a dollar or two for it, but even if we assume that only half of the 5479 customers would have been willing to pay one dollar for it, it would add up to a substantial amount of money for just one month.
The golden age of computer chess is long gone. These were the late 70's and 80's (dedicated units) and the 90's (PC), I agree with Chris, after 1997 (Kasparov - Deep Blue) turnovers rapidly went in decline.This really is the golden age of computer chess, from a commercial perspective. Programmers just have to wake up and realise that nobody plays chess on a PC anymore.
But I agree with you the future of commercial chess programs already has moved to mobile phones (already quite saturated too IMO) and the new future will be in Androids / IPAD's. It must be possible to have a reasonable income provided you do a good marketing job.
