Wild Speculation Post #1 (Elephant in the Room?)

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been dwelling over one of the answers Jussi gave in our recent interview:

In the first phase, we are providing an independent alternative into which we are inviting our partners, business models and value add. 

This answer from Jussi has been whirling around my head these past days and from this statement, it is absolutely 100% clear (to me at least) that Jolla are going to offer their ‘independent’ software OS in the shape of their own brand of customised MeeGo platform to 3rd party mobile phone manufacturers.  They are probably working on their own handset of course but the quickest way to ‘get out there’ so to speak initially, will be to team up with companies who are already finely tuned to making the hardware….  someone like Nokia for example ?  Now I know there has been a lot of speculation on this already that perhaps this is Nokia’s workaround on freeing themselves from the their deal with Microsoft, but I am really starting to believe this could be true.

Take for example the next comment from the interview:

We are not jealous of others using Jolla and MeeGo, and we are inviting other brands to Jolla devices.

So it is very clear from this underlined part that Jolla will be open to licensing their software for other ‘brands’ to use.

Jolla is a Finnish company after all, with many of the employees being ex-Nokians, so they have a huge affinity with Nokia many of whom (including their CEO) have left on great terms, with Nokia even offering up a grant to help them kick start Jolla.

So the more I think about it, it is becoming plainly clear:

Amongst other things, what if Jolla are working to be to Nokia what Microsoft are to Nokia ?  That is a 3rd party software company who license their software to Nokia.   Nokia have always been amazing at producing the greatest hardware (check this engadget video:  http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/24/engadget-visits-nokia-house-walks-down-memory-lane-video/  via mynokiablog), however, where they often fell short (in the old days) was implementing the software side of things.  This was one of the biggest reasons for the move to Microsoft, to negate that part of the ‘software’ equation and to focus much more on ‘hardware’ which they are so good at (combined of course with great Nokia software Apps like Maps, Music, Pureview imaging etc etc).

Okay, so there is no doubt in my mind that Jolla’s software + Nokia’s hardware would = a match made in heaven.   Jolla would provide all the OS updates and be in charge of the software apps and keeping everything up-to-date on that side, while Nokia would provide that amazing hardware along with the great navigation software, music, app store, maybe even with Nokia’s outstanding Pureview imaging hardware who knows?

Think about it, Nokia has a history of working with 3rd party companies who are ‘experts’ in their own fields: take Carl Zeiss, JBL, Microsoft, Smarterphone, Navteq, Intel and the list goes on and on…. can we add the mobile Linux experts, Jolla to the list in the near future perhaps ?

This would make absolute sense but the way I see it happening would be Jolla putting their branding on Nokia designed hardware.   It would be win win on both sides with Nokia still able to sell handsets in spite of the Microsoft deal and with Jolla benefiting from the expertise and experience of a great (locally based) hardware manufacturer.

Anyway, I know a lot of this has already been speculated and sorry for the rant, but the more I think about it, the more I hope it will come true and I guess only time will tell!

I will try and sum all of this up – the route that I am speculating Jolla could take :

1/  Develop own custom MeeGo UI with 3rd party hardware manufacturer (someone like Nokia) for Jolla branded handset: release and sell billions   (like the strategy Google use with Samsung on the Google Nexus)

2/  Gain huge momentum and respect from other mobile phone manufacturers and subsequently start licensing Jolla software to the big boys eg. Samsung, HTC, Sony etc

3/  Continue releasing one Jolla branded phone per year followed by other devices as momentum with Jolla OS continues to build over the years.

4/  Continue growth and releasing OS updates annually and servicing 3rd party manufacturers.

5/  Become the number one OS used worldwide

(This article represents my thoughtings, opinionings and rantings only: please don’t take anything as writtening)

As ever, thanks for reading…