In the first place, they are playing in over-crowded spaces. Because the market is already crowded, no one has grabbed enough market share to put up serious barriers to entry. This means anyone can jump into this space, and with the wide acceptance and standardization of the Java platform for wireless applications, it gets harder every day for new players to differentiate themselves from the competition. Also, a lot of these products suck. Plus, people are still thinking too small.
Few solutions are truly horizontal.
Such market dynamics call for very few winners and a multitude of losers, constrained to niche addressable markets and therefore dismal valuations. The list goes on - lousy revenue models, limitations in wireless devices, lack of supporting infrastructure, security issues etc. A select handful may just possibly survive. In the midst of slipping the noose round the collective necks of the middleware industry, the authors pause to offer a partial reprieve. Seems a few members of the gang will be allowed to live another day.