If you come into the interview and say "I am a kernal developer but I want to work on mobile" and you show us a working mobile app you developed on your own, we would consider it. If you come in and say "I am a kernal developer and I want you to take a chance and pay for me to get up to speed on mobile development" that is a harder sell. If you ran a business, would you choose that person or the person who comes in with actual mobile experience and hits the ground running. I sense a lot of hostility in this thread from people who have never been on the other side of the desk. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who interviews a ton of people, and where hiring the wrong person is much worse then not hiring the right person.
Also if your trying to make that drastic a switch, are you willing to take a paycut? Just because someone has 15 years kernal experience does not mean they deserve the same pay for mobile (or visa versa).
You are greatly over-estimating kernel developer's pay. Unless you're an open-source rock-star (ie. Linus & a few other), kernel development does not pay bazillions. A local shop was looking for Android kernel dev for CAN$75k (USD$60k). Any entry level mobile dev can easily make that much in USD. Even an Amazon SDIII isn't paying that much (~CAD$110k in the Vancouver area). I've been talking with other larger hardware manufacturer and their offers are roughly of the same order (in high living cost area).
