The cost of software development for mobile phones etc. dramatically increases

It turned out that the development cost of software embedded in devices such as mobile phones has increased dramatically.

In response to the soaring development cost of mobile phones,Google's free operating system for mobile phones "Android"Manufacturers that adopt, etc. are increasing, but soaring software development cost seems to have a big impact on manufacturers.

Details are as below.
"Embedded software" such as mobile, investigation by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to 49% of development costs - Latest news: IT-PLUS

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun news report, the development cost of embedded software installed in automobiles and mobile phones is expected to reach 49.0% of the total development cost of the equipment in 2009.

This was clarified by a survey conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in January - February 2009 for about 300 companies such as automobiles, electric machinery manufacturers and software development companies, and compared with the survey in 2004, the total development cost The proportion occupied has increased by 12.7 points.

In addition, with the advance of equipment, the total absolute amount of embedded software development expenses has also increased to nearly twice as large as 2004, 4.2 trillion yen, It is said that development costs of installed embedded software are expanding.

By the way, apart from Google's mobile phone OS "Android"We prepare a "master machine" equipped with parts and OS commonly used by all models and introduce a development method that promotes the development of additional software and body shapes that individually loads based on the specificationsIn addition to being expected to reduce development costs per model by about 40%, NOKIA, the world's largest mobile phone maker,Develop a mobile phone OS "NoTA" that can reduce the development cost of software up to 1 / 100thManufacturers are working on measures to increase the development cost of mobile phones, etc., but how much effect do they have?

The proportion of software in mobile phone development cost far exceeds 49% which was clarified in this surveyIt is said that it has reached about 80%However, as long as the price of the mobile phone exceeds 5 to 60,000 yen, if development costs are reduced, so as to stop the price rise, it is very helpful for consumers.