Mobile app development isn't just for the "experts" anymore. In an age of exceedingly user-friendly development toolkits and intuitive Google (GOOG) Android and Apple (AAPL) iOS mobile interfaces, everyone can be a programmer. That's the message in the story of Paulo Longato, who recently won a major contest sponsored by Corona Labs to build a game for mobile devices related to Dilbert, the quintessential office warrior.

Corona Labs announced the results of the contest, which ran from mid-May through mid-July, late last week. Submissions for the competition had to use the Corona SDK tool for developing mobile apps for iOS, Android and other platforms. Proposals were judged by Corona developers and Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip.

Submissions arrived from around the world, and the winner, Paulo Longato, resides in Denmark. According to email from Corona representatives, however, Longato is not a typical game developer. He is instead "a laid off investment banker who used his spare time to develop an idea he had for years" after losing his job in London and relocating to Denmark. It took him only a day to create his winning entry, he says.

While out-of-work bankers may not be much of a novelty these days, software programmers who can build non-trivial apps for mobile devices with no formal training are something newer. They're evidence of the ever-lower barrier of app development that tools such as Corona SDK and a slew of others has created.

The message for the channel is that the future of computing, perhaps especially on mobile devices, does not lie solely with professional developers or major enterprises. The ecosystem has grown more entrepreneurial and dynamic than ever, and identifying coming trends means looking beyond the usual suspects.

Longato's app, by the way, is a path-drawing game "in which the goal is to collect coffee beans (the office workers' fuel) and help the Dilbert characters escape the shackles of the office environment." It is forthcoming from DazzleCube.