[Openmind 2012] Mobile ecosystems? How open they really are, should or could be? by Kimmo Karhu (Researcher, Aalto University)

Openmind 2012 / Open Knowledge Festival 2012
http://okfestival.org/open-source-software/

Transcript

1. Mobile ecosystems? How open they really are, should or could be? Kimmo Karhu Researcher Aalto University kimmo.karhu@aalto.fi September 19, 2012 OKFestival 2012
2. Happy couple or a forced marriage? Seriously thinking: What are the consequences of this handshake for openness in mobile ecosystems?
3. Phenomenal success of App Store • More than 700 000 apps available for iPhone • These apps have been downloaded more than 30 billion times! • On average, each iPad user has downloaded around 100 apps • $5.5 billion paid to developers
4. What are ecosystems?
5. Business ecosystem • A company should be viewed not as a member of a single industry but as part of a business ecosystem that crosses a variety of industries • Companies work cooperatively and competitively to support new products and satisfy customer needs Moore, J. F. Predators and prey: A new ecology of competition. Harvard Business Review, 71, 3, May-June 1993, 75-86.
6. Coopetition - to cooperate and compete simultaneously • During the last decade, a new coopetition business model has emerged where company chooses to collaborate with its direct competitors • For example, Amazon collaborates with other bookstores by providing them the infrastructure to market and sell their products online Bengtsson, M., and Kock, S. “Coopetition” in business networks - To cooperate and compete simultaneously. Industrial Marketing Management, 29, 5, 2000, 411-426.
7. Mobile ecosystem, how does it look like? Adapted from: Karhu, K., Botero, A., Vihavainen, S., Tang, T., & Hämäläinen, M. (2011). A Digital Ecosystem for Co-Creating Business with People. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, 3(3). Retrieved from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jetwi/article/view/jetwi0303197205
8. How to analyze ecosystems and their openness?
9. Problem of defining openness • Android platform is basically open-source, but … – Official Android versions are fully controlled by Google – Google keeps value added services, such as Google Maps, Gmail, proprietary (For example, not available in Amazon ecosystem) – Prevents Android manufacturers from participating in forked ecosystems (Acer – Alibaba case) • Even though the platform is proprietary (such as iOS), APIs are open for developers to build their own apps – How much should this aspect contribute to the openness of the ecosystem? – Sarcastic note: “Open”, but you have to pay for it • Instead of trying to define and estimate “openness” directly, we estimated it from the level of competition and collaboration towards other actors in the ecosystems
10. Measuring the level of competition and collaboration • For each ecosystem, we estimated the level of competition and collaboration towards all different type of actors in the ecosystem • For example in Apple ecosystem: – Regarding phone manufacturers, Apple has high level of competition since it manufactures and sells phones itself and zero level of collaboration, since it doesn’t license its platform for other manufacturers • This process was repeated for each actor and each ecosystem
11. How open the mobile ecosystems are? ?
12. Findings from the analysis • It seems that all platforms have chosen or are moving towards closed and competitive policies – Tough business environment for other actors • However, there are also signs that more open platforms are emerging – For example, HTML5 and packaged web apps for mobiles
13. What has really happened? Components Device Operating system Services Advertisement Market place Content (incl. apps) Microsoft Used to be … Apple Google Amazon Now • Leaders behind the mobile ecosystems have emerged from different type of companies • They have all extended their business into virtually all business segments
14. In these ecosystems, what kind of role is left for other “species”, i.e. businesses?
15. Are developer ”human rights” violated? • To be able to test and run your own application in your own phone you have to pay ~$99 per year (iPhone, Windows) • Ad-hoc distribution: after paying this $99/year, you can share your apps to a maximum 100 other users (iPhone, Windows) – Windows phone puts a further time limit of 90 days! • Microsoft, Apple and Amazon reserve the right not to publish your application in their market place or remove it from there (for any reason or no reason) – Note! For Windows Phone there are no other ways to distribute your application!
16. Mobile ecosystems are shifting away from original business ecosystem thinking • It used to be so that business ecosystem meant true collaboration (and competition) between companies (each having their fair share of business) • For mobile ecosystems, instead, it seems that leading companies swear by vertical integration; they want to control and make business themselves in virtually all business areas
17. Conclusions • Despite the “problems” in the openness of mobile ecosystems, they have fostered unbelievable innovation and stream of new apps • Four biggest ecosystems seem to be moving towards closed “kingdoms” • For the next generation of ecosystems, there would be a call and possibility for a more open and fair ecosystem – Will HTML5, Mozilla or Jolla answer this call?
18. Thank you. For more information, please contact: kimmo.karhu@aalto.fi +358 40 757 6871 http://fi.linkedin.com/in/kimmokarhu http://aalto-fi.academia.edu/kimmokarhu All Logos and Trademarks used or mentioned in this presentation are copyrighted property of their respective owners and are used only for illustrative purposes kimmo.karhu@aalto.fi