I think it's inevitable that software will be a commodity. On the other hand, chairs are a commodity, but Laz-y-Boy is still in business. That makes it hard to tell what the future will be on these things.

Wheels have been around since before civilization, but there are engineers who spend all their careers doing nothing but improving wheels. Again, I'm not sure the same applies to basic software, but it sure does seem to have some bearing on the subject.

There's even a market for new, improved versions of fire. After all, that's pretty much what making internal combustion engines more efficient is all about. Will there be a few million software engineers when software is as much of a commodity as fire? No. Will there be some very specialized, highly profitable companies that work at the far edge of what can be done with it? Probably.