Speaking in a keynote at Mobile World Congress, Jolla CEO Marc Dillon said that the mobile industry is in “what may be the last step in the golden age of ecosystems – what is happening now is that everybody is getting squeezed”.
According to Dillon, operators have a fear of turning to dump pipes when their margins would shrink significantly, and when the number one question for users will be “where can I get the biggest, cheapest plan.”
He said that to tackle this problem, companies should embrace openness as it can “enable a greater degree of innovation.” Dillon went on to add: “Openness is the new ecosystem, and ecosystem independence is the thing that really is going to drive innovation. A lot of people are scared of open. But openness is not something to be afraid of. There are lots of business models that are available. But openness is also about being open to innovate.”
However, unlike Google, Jolla is working on a more tightly controlled system similar to BlackBerry and Apple, as they plan to merge hardware and software design to ensure the best possible experience. “When you control the whole thing, the software and the hardware, when you are able to contribute an operating system and hardware together, then you can create your own user experience and be very different. You can create your own industrial design, and package it any way you want,” Dillon added…