Everyone says it... but that doesn't mean it's true (yet).
People talk about Apple's famous 'reality distortion field', but it's an idea that could easily be extended to the entire mobile entertainment industry.
It's a relatively new area, of course, so people shouldn't be blamed for getting carried away with their whizzy technology and services.
Here's our pick of the most common assumptions in mobile. We're not saying they're always untrue - just that they require a smidgeon of caution...
1. "We're going to be big in China / India..."
Usually based on some back-of-an-envelope calculations about how most of the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens will be hot for whatever mobile content you want to flog to them.
This, despite the fact that a.) most of them aren't interested in mobile content, b.) those that are aren't interested in Western mobile content, and c.) if you don't pick the right partner, you probably won't see the revenue from any sales you do make anyway.
2. "People are more willing to pay on mobile..."
Web users want everything for free, but mobile users are happy to stump up, right? After all, they paid through the nose for ringtones happily for years.
Except nowadays, mobile is increasingly part of the web, certainly when it comes to services. Google is launching mobile versions of all its (free) products, and there's huge interest in (free) mobile applications.
Can you charge for mobile content and services? Of course. But the blithe assumption that people will pay more because it's mobile is increasingly being challenged.
3. "iPhone is the promised land..."
Most obvious among the many games developers dumping Java as fast as they can in the expectation of App Store riches, but it can also be seen in the brands rushing to release iPhone apps but not looking to other mobile platforms.
The rationale is logical enough: no porting hassles, a generous and transparent revenue share, bags of media coverage to be had, etc.
Yet even with 30 million sold (plus 20 million iPod touches), the App Store is still a relative niche in the general scheme of things. This time in six months, expect to hear more companies talking about their cross-mobile-platform strategies. Especially if their first iPhone apps sank without a trace.
4. "The problem with 99-cent iPhone apps..."
While we're on the subject of iPhone and the App Store, it's fashionable to decry the dominance of '99-cent' apps, and make woeful sounds about the prospect of any established companies making any money as a result.
Poppycock. EA has been proving this week that a good enough game - Madden 10 in its case - can sell like billy-o despite a premium price tag. Meanwhile, navigation apps aren't being sucked into the 99-cent wars, judging by their price tags.
The assumption that to make it into the charts an app has to cost $0.99 is undoubtedly dangerous, but it's a challenge to be faced with high-quality content and canny marketing, rather than pleas for Apple to kick the cheap stuff to the kerb.
5. "A mobile phone is such a personal device, it's perfect for targeted marketing..."
Every mobile advertising firm starts life saying this, and heralding a shiny new world of relevant, highly personalised ads that yield enormous CPMs for whoever's selling them.
The reality? A mobile phone is such a personal device, there's an even more enormous risk of advertising being seen as intrusive by users. It's been true from SMS marketing onwards.
Again, we're not writing off mobile advertising here. Just the line of argument that starts (and often ends) with the assumption that the personal nature of handsets doesn't bring with it risks as big as the opportunities. The successful mobile ad firms know that.
6. "Build an app store, and they will come..."
They being consumers, of course. Apple has managed to shift 1.8 billion app downloads because its App Store is brilliantly easy to use, offers a wealth of choice, and handily relies on credit card details stored with the company when a user activates their iPhone (if not before).
The App Store certainly has its wrinkles, but they've been put into perspective by the early days of rival stores - including Android Market, BlackBerry App World and Ovi Store. Poor discovery, high pricing, fiddly billing, a scarcity of whizz-bang apps, technical glitches... one or all of these things can be a killer.
Being better than an operator portal is not enough. A theory that may well be tested again once the actual operators start rolling out their app stores...
7. "Fragmentation will cease to be an issue in time..."
Yeah, right. That time being when the mobile market is commoditised to the point where every phone looks the same and has the same hardware inside, yes?
Fragmentation isn't going away. Successful companies simply deal with it - even if they do still like to moan about it regularly.
8. "It's big in Japan..."
Japan is a marvellous place if you're a mobile geek. They get new technologies first and roadtest them years before they're big in the West. So anything that's hot in Japan right now will be hot here in 12-18 months time. Is the assumption.
i-mode's less-than-resounding reception among Western consumers is the obvious example to quote in opposition to this. But it's a theory that can be applied to mobile content, handset technologies, consumer behaviour...
Some mobile stuff that's Big In Japan will also be Big In The West. But a lot won't. And while we're at it, the same goes for South Korea. Both hugely interesting and exciting markets, but not the stone-cold predictors of Western mobile tastes that they're often labelled.
9. "Location-based technology is intrinsically exciting for consumers..."
No it's not. The phrase "location-based technology" intrinsically puts most people who aren't in the mobile industry to sleep. And they look equally unimpressed if you promise them their phone can guide them to the nearest cashpoint.
That was the big selling point of the early days of LBS, until the ...
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The problem is that this is all still technology-led. The assumption that everyone wants to track their friends - and especially that they regularly go out in town with no specific plans in mind of who to meet or where to go - is unproven at best. As is the idea that people want to geotag all their photos and videos and share them with the world, all the time.
The next year or two will see some really smart, desirable mobile services launch that use location. But it's the ones that are actually based on stuff people want to do that will succeed.
It's more about great, desirable services that happen to have location elements in the mix.
10. "The operators are toast..."
It's hard to believe, we know, but not everyone is buying a smartphone this year. The operators are still the biggest retail channel for mobile content and services, for all their perceived faults.
What's more, they're not lying down and settling for a future as dumb pipes. Watch for an almighty scrap in the coming months, for example, as operator app stores go head-to-head with the stores of handset makers and OS providers - with potential for three to appear on the same handset.
Whether as a positive force in their own right or a roadblock to innovations elsewhere, the operators aren't done with mobile content. So it's strange to see so many developers blithely assuming they're already dead ducks.
