[andrewb]

With no backing data, my reasoning would be it's the ideal time to jump into the industry.

Before the iPhone, I can only imagine how hard it'd be for developers to handle the business side of building a game, e.g. purchasing, delivery, website hosting, etc.

Now a days you have multiple mobile app stores, Kickstarter, Greenlight, Humble Bundle, etc.

[kayoone]

Barriers to entry are extremely low, thats why you have an incredible amount of competition fighting for gamer attention. So in the past it was harder, but there were also a lot less people doing it.

[eropple]

The good news, such as it is, is that most of that competition is shit. The quantity of games is huge. The quantity of ones people play is not, and generally correlates with quality. Be interesting, be notable, and find ways to differentiate, and you have a much better chance. Get on Greenlight, get on Steam, be excellent enough to get on the radar of the new consoles (indie dev programs for both are underway). This is not easy, but it isn't impossible--I know two devs building their first game with a PS4 target.

(Also, avoiding the mobile market is probably wise. Competition is a lot harder there, and the games people generally gravitate towards so much simpler, that the barriers really are low there.)