Decay of the developer
I think we're heading towards a scenario where 'consumer' software will not need developers anymore (not on the immediate short term , but we're accelerating towards that) - There will be a closed loop of sophisticated end users using 'smarter' tools that generate their computing needs,with good exposure and delivery mechanisms (i.e. the Web) . Developers are benevolent enough to write software that will eventually replace them for the larger share of the market . So wide-spread , adaptable general-purpose software will be a product of business users directly - Making useful functional software will become everybody's game - no coding required.
I've seen the future - much less developers than today , with most doing specific-purpose software packages and infrastructural work (data manipulation,communication protocols , security...), consumer software will be consumer-created , not consumer driven . efff - programming career is already short , just like a professional athlete ,or a prostitute - The worst of it will be 10 years from now , there will be too many developers still around and too many power business users,tough times to come .It will eventually be corrected , as per my prophecy.
