Teahou,
I did a quick browse through opportunities for "windows mobile developer" on the Dice job boards and saw C++/C# and Windows core services as being desirable skills, if you are going to stick with Windows. I think the platform is pretty new and I think the market feels that it is still unproven.
DazeInfo.com quoted an ABI Research report predicting that there will be 1.4 billion active smart phones and 268 million active tablets by the end of 2013. Of those, 45 million will be Windows Phones and 20 million will be BlackBerry 10 phones. In contrast, there would be 798 million active Android phones and 294 million active iOS phones.
The report goes on to say that the developer community built around the Windows Phone is very small, compared to communities supporting Android and Apple devices. If you want to forge a new path AND you are a super-star programmer/developer/thought leader, there's an opportunity to definitely stand out from the crowd and be a mover/shaker in the Windows Phone niche.
As with anything else, if you are the best, you'll usually be in demand.
You'll certainly see a continued action on the Web side with .Net applications. The mobile development industry is still having the Web app (in a browser on the phone) vs. the native phone app (particular to the mobile OS) discussion. There's a lot of talk and interest in HTML5. For browser-based apps, it looks very promising and I think will be an important emerging standard.
I'm a Linux guy from way back, so it makes perfect sense that I'm largely happy with Android devices. As you might guess, I was jumping up and down when I saw that Canonical is working on a native port of Ubuntu on high-end phones. Here's a recent Dice article about that new development. Expanding into the mobile device market, Canonical shares some of the same issues facing Windows on mobile devices. Neither have a track record and both have a smallish support community. If it were me, I'd be more comfortable pursuing the Android or iOS route. That's just me. You'll have to make your own informed decisions.
Bottom line: work hard to keep your current job/income, save as much money as you can, pick a comfortable (for you) direction, and then become the best in the business.
Rob Reilly
Dice Mobile Development and Linux community guide
