We’ve all read the stories: a small developer hits it big with an iPhone app, raking in as much as $800,000 in five months as iShoot’s creator Ethan Nicholas did. These anecdotes don’t seem to be going away, the latest to crop up is the news that the small Australian developer Firemint sold over 700,000 copies of its $0.99 iPhone app “Flight Control” since its March debut, netting the company some $485,000. But what VC’s want to know is if there is a $100 million mobile application company out there, or just lots of “hobbyists”, as the nytimes.com asks.

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VCs acknowledge that the mobile and wireless world “is exploding” and that mobile apps can generate revenue. But whether one company can develop the number of hit apps needed to create a $100 million app business—and to keep the hits coming—is a completely different question, that VC’s don’t seem entirely convinced of. Android co-creator Rich Miner, now one of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Ventures MD’s said the issue was still “a murky one.” VCs, he said, want to be able to sell the company to another company or exit through an IPO to get a return on their investment. “I’m not sure those venture style exits exist,” he said.