Interview with Jolla Mobile CEO, Jussi Hurmola (audio and full transcript)
Hey folks. IntoMobile had an interview with the CEO of Jolla Mobile and shared the transcript as well as the audio.
Audio >> CLICKY
- 50 employees, hiring 5 a week, aim of 100 by end of the year
- Confirmation again of a new phone by this year
- New phone will have developer mode. Ready for mass consumers but friendly for developers two. Jussi says this is where TechCrunch got their ’2 devices’ from.
- Will not commit to products for 2013 yet until they see how this one does (in 2012).
- Currently in negotiation phase with chipset vendors , ODM support
- Close to being able to communicate about the partners they’re using.
- Not using SWIPE as that belongs to Nokia. As mentioned before, they will have a new UI.
- Been going to China every month for about a year
Why not just put custom UI on Droid? –
- ‘We want to lead in technology and lead in UI, that’s our business. We don’t want to copy them.’
- Contrary to reports, Nokia has not ‘gifted’ them with IPR. Perhaps they licensed it/purchased it?
- MeeGo is NOT dead
Apps, how will they deal with having no apps?
- “ I believe that we have an answer for this, and I understand that you can not seriously sell a smartphone if you don’t have a sufficient application offering, but I can’t tell you what our plan is until we announce our product.” Hmm.
Stefan makes an interesting comparison:
- Are you familiar with the Apple story around Steve Jobs, how he got kicked out, started his own company called NeXT, and then Apple bought NeXT and used their software to bring Apple back to life? If the Windows Phone plan goes to complete shit, and Nokia don’t sell any, would you be open to getting acquired by your former employer?
Stefan quotes an interesting comment by Jolla from WSJ
- With all respect to Apple’s operating system and Android, the market is ready for something new. As I see it, there are user segments that have been left unserved
Jussi says these user elements will become clear when they launch their products.
Here’s another Jolla article to check out whilst you’re at this post. It’s the TechCrunch article that Stefan references a lot:
Thanks ssdh for the tip!
Category: Nokia
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Seams like my next Phone, Nokia might not be dead after all just renamed
Nokia’s dead already
http://mynokiablog.com/2011/02/11/winners-and-losers-of-the-nokia-microsoft-alliance/
It’s not a Nokia phone
It´s Nokia´s true heritage.
i just wish they have a good international reach not just uk/us
an about what he said that there are many user segments left unserved he’s totally correct most nokia/symbian users are left unserved
and one more thing … i wish nokia licences NOKIA MAPS SUIT to them
if they give it to MS n all WP OEMS why cant they licence it to JM
Yep… I’m more concerned about the distribution channel than about their ability to make a device – they do have a know how, and you can find a ton of companies willing to manufacture per your specifications, but you need to sell those things as well, and that’s where the real fun starts – that’s when the sales channel and the marketing make a definite make-or-break moment.
The problem with radio-Tx equipment is that multiple countries have a multiple laws, regulatory bodies, etc. and even if you want to do your distribution a la Amazon or NewEgg you still need to import your devices into their destined countries for which you need to pass a lot of requirements in different markets. Having the proper certification, dealing with government bodies and etc. can cost a lot especially for a single device, for a manufacturer just entering the market. In many western countries it is even a deliberately long and costly endeavor to prevent cheap Chinese and Indian manufacturers to flood their market.
They better be prepared for that, sales is a serious business… Of course, even if they manage to pass all those hurdles, there still is the option of being sued to death by the behemoths of the mobile industry afraid of a little competition…
yup those things are certainly very big hurdles as they can make a device on thier own but making it available in market is very difficult let alone selling it……
look at ZUNE hardware which never made to the international markets and i think thats the reason it failed everyone who owns one loves it as a PMP it just had everything but no markets…
just wish they make partnerships with nokia for these things but they might not have that much of cash…..
also i think they have made a huge mistake by promising a device in 2012 i dont think they can deliver this early….
but i wish them luck and waiting for a great device
Well, the guy in the interview clearly said they will present a device in 2012, not necessarily sell it. He was very adamant about it. They don’t want to repeat Nokia’s common mistake of overpromising and underdelivering.
If they just concentrate on making just one mind blowing handset a year like apple, and not a ridiculous number like Nokia, then maybe carriers and distributors would give them some shelf space.
As soon as we get to hear their business partners, we are a lot wiser.
They’ve clearly understood the distribution dilemma. The Intomobile site does not work ATM, but Jussi has made such comments in his interviews that they know the channel options.
Also, they are not Nokia and they can consentrate on chosen markets. You know how much effort a lot of people at TMO saw to order N9s around the world. Within EU on approcal is enough, maybe US and China and depending on the specs India. Most probably they will have clear waves of availability similar with Lumia, but this time again fitting their business unlike Nokia, who would have needed a global launch. And approaching first the early adopters. With the publicity in Finland and having at least good quality product, they can achieve good level of sales measured against N9.
I wish they team up with Activeark (http://www.activeark.com/) who were working on N9 (and N900/Meego/Maemo). I wouldnt mind another N9 seconds competition eventhough it took hours of my life and no results – that really got me hooked and couldnt have cost fortunes vs having the Times Square occupied for a night. And please no War or Army related dialogue, please.
They already have community interested, which is excellent start. If/when N9 sold 2mio+ devices with limited availability, 10% of it should be easily possible. (TMO claims to have over 22k registered members, not active though). Finnish retail channels (mostly operators) have already commented to media that they are interested, if the product is good.
Really wish to believe in these guys, having been a fan of Meego and all..
But I can’t.
These people are delusional if they think they can succeed.
But then again, only mad people make history.
The world needs more of this kind of madness.
+1
It depends a lot, who are the business partners.
well well…. nokia n9 is the most wonderful device and meego.. is simply wow…. so that means Jolla is bringing somthing new…. may be turn the concept of Nokia AIR…. in to MeeGo Air thats indeed a UI that most of us who ever generally read at MNB would definately like… besides its simply beautiful than those shitty droids and IOS, those suck. come on waiting eagerly to see the new UX or UI. Cheers for saving the beloved MeeGo project. thats called innovation and is warmly accepted. I’d be the prompt buyer if its more of a successor of N9 though. Cheers
‘Are you familiar with the Apple story around Steve Jobs, how he got kicked out, started his own company called NeXT, and then Apple bought NeXT and used their software to bring Apple back to life? If the Windows Phone plan goes to complete shit, and Nokia don’t sell any, would you be open to getting acquired by your former employer?’
wow…they seems to be very serious
it maybe another new reborn story in the next few years!
these guys just need to write an alternative os for the nokia N9..They dont need to publicise to the world dat its compatible but they need to make sure its compatible. then write lots of N9 apps and then create a more powerful N9 in future.. Datsn the only way i wont go windows phone
I think this will be a tough thing to do
• They have to outdesign the N9 which is already one of the cleanest, purest hardware designs ever.
• They have to out-innovate swipe, the most elegant and efficient touch interface I know of.
• Not even thinking about production, certification, sales and marketing
– but then, seeing who these people are… it could very well work. It feels exiting.
wait, i’m a little bit confused, somebody please explain :
what does jolla really do?
A. developing meego/mer os AND developing the hardware AND sell it with jolla brand
or
B. just developing & selling the hardware, the meego/mer OS itself is developed by community
or
C. developing meego/mer OS, BUT the hardware is made by other OEM (e.g. samsung, lg, sony)
IMO they should follow Mozilla’s path, designing firefox OS, but the hardware is made by alcatel & ZTE (& the hardware brand is alcatel & ZTE)
They are going to only develop OS as of now. Huwaei and ZTE will be launching their devices initially…
Don’t expect new devices to be shadowing N9 soon!
They have not confirmed hw partners, how are you so confident it is ZTE & Huwaei?
Also they may not be manufacturing it, but they’re most certainly designing the hw.
And it seems they intend to brand it as their hw/OS/device but that’s not 100% clear yet.
It’s not even clear yet what the final OS name and branding etc will be.
The idea as of now is that they will design & develop a complete device (hardware & software) and then mostly will contract some ODM\OEM to manufacture them.
Short version, probably something close to A but with hardware it’s mainly just Jolla branding.
Longer version.
If I understood correctly their main expertise is on the OS side. Mer is developed by the community, but Jolla is making a brand new UI on it and possibly something related to apps. That’s the part I’m pretty sure about.
Devices will be made by them, i.e. Jolla brand and no one else sells same the hardware, but they will use outside help with this since they don’t have the expertise themselves. Most likely it’s someone like Compal who will make the technical side of hardware design following Jolla’s requirements. It hasn’t been said that there couldn’t be other manufacturers like ZTE, HTC,… taking part, but so far I haven’t heard anything pointing to this direction.
If I can throw wild guesses, they will have ACL, Myriad’s Alien Dalvik or something like that that will make it possible to use existing apps on it. They might have their own store that on the Android side would be just a branded version of Amazon’s Android appstore but for other apps they would really have their own store. Maybe even something cloud based like Nokia Air was supposed to be.
Things that I’m not willing to let go
[1] Swipe (if got better swipe ui/ux, ill consider)
[2] Low power screen (I only see this on Nokia device..patented?)
[3] Nokia Drive
[4] Nokia Maps
[5] Superb Carl Zeiss lens on macro-ing
[6] FM transmitter (I only see this on Nokia device..patented?)
If Jolla can outclass this six items…TAKE MY MONEY
* If jolla can provide this or better solutions…TAKE MY MONEY
+1
swipe is Nokia, so not going to get it. I seriously doubt it is going to have anything special camera-wise,
Swipe and Camera will be lacking for sure… Unless Nokia will have a change of heart and allow Jolla to use.
As I surmised quick n easy licensing from Nokia and eventual(hopefully) reacquisition by Nokia
Elop is a douchebag if he doesn’t share Swipe UI to Jolla!
I’m as a Nokia shareholder would be really angry if he shared Swipe UI related patents with Jolla. I’m as an N9 user would be angry as well if he did not do so.
So, I will loose either way…
Seriously, why on Earth would Nokia share that with anybody? They can not be so blind that they do not see how valuable it is. They know it, see where the new full touch S40 phone UI evolves…
In my opinion it is the very best UI at the moment…
they could license it to jolla.
They’re not using Swipe UI on shitty Windows Phone anyway!
Unfortunately it is true – but not using your strongest weapon does not validate passing it to your challenger…
I see it would be good for us, users but it would not make much sense for Nokia – they know how good it is and they not necessarily wants to help Jolla with it…
If they expect significant royalty income from it is just would indicate they expect it will sell. It would equivalent stating canning MeeGo was a bad decision. Do you think Elop will admit it in public?
If they do not expect any meaningful income – why to license it?
So, catch of 22…
Imagine the case when Nokia let Jolla using Swipe UI on their MeeGo phones and Jolla achieve some meaningful result with it.
What reason can save Elop/BOD members then from being fired immediately? The shareholders would take them apart by their own hands in the next annual shareholders meeting…
No to mention the expectable class action lawsuits, stock exchange investigations coming…
I see it by another point of view, pretty simple and stupid point of view to be honnest, something like:
Share to put it on the market before someone develop and publish an acceptable alternative
on the market it can be improved by the community, and these changes can be implemented, but if it stay on the archives someone someday will develop something close to it and the patent war will start all over again…
well same toughts for blackberry BBM security service
just my point of view…
They gave microsoft maps for free, why not give some ex employees an old UI that wasn’t considered good enough?
Well as it turns out, nokia does not really know how valuable the swipe UI is, otherwise they would have marketed and sold as much N9s as possible.. Or they really know how valuable it is, that’s why they gave it as little chance as possible, iykwim..
This anything to do with Jolla.?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/amazoncom-working-on-to-rival-apples-iphone-and-samsungs-galaxy/story-fnay3ubk-1226424179446
“Officials at some of Amazon’s parts suppliers, who declined to be named, said the Seattle-based company is testing a smartphone and mass production of the new device may start late this year or early next year.”
maybe. or not. Jolla can partner with Facebook as well…
Since Amazon kindle fire is an Android device my first guess would be that they would use Android.
But you never know.
MeeGo with no swipe = NO GO!!
But anyway hope they will develop meego further until nokia buy them and bring them back to their former workplaces at nokia (+ put swipe back on the OS and everything is wonderful).
Well if they’re successful, and nokia decides to buy them back, then they should be given top priority…
Wow.
I don’t see even 1 person act like windows defender here.
Jay?
Janne?
Ali?
Where r u?
This JM is sound too good?
WP sounds too bad now?
WTF?
I have supported Jolla from the moment they came out of the closet.
I’m buying.
Of course I’m also buying a WP8 Lumia and just bought the 808 and a white N9 to boot. Had to have me one of those.
And of course Nokia supported starting Jolla through their Nokia Bridge program. Nokia is not evil. Nor is Elop.
In one of the interviews Jussi sounded like they got the same Bridge treatmet just like others did. Nothing specific support.
+1
Care to explain why there needs to be a ‘windows defender’ here.
Are you trying to stir up crap in here?
well, nokia is falling, Flop is bad , where are Plan B?, must have 2 or 3 OS: WP, Symbian, and Maemo harmattan ,its so clear, look for Sammy,so rocks Jolla ,keep MEEGO ON,WP fanboys must have an vision for Nokia´s future , and WP can fail dont you?
sub.
why on earth are you morons blogging about Jolla Mobile here? This is Nokia blog no? From the time my nokia blog started Nokia went down the drain.. at least let the folks at jolla be!
JM has nothing to do with Nokia so it should not be on this page!
An example of something that has nothing to do with Nokia would be, trainspotting. Or Bada. If I was blogging about those two then perhaps your insult would be fitting.
We talked about Maemo, which turned into MeeGo and then briefly covered snippets of info on Tizen. But the connection to Nokia there was a stretch.
Here, things are absolutely different.
1) Key MeeGo/Maemo personnel from Nokia are at Jolla Mobile now
2) Established from the Nokia bridge programme
3) MeeGo products – spirit of maemo from Nokia lives on.
4) Our readers are very interested in Jolla Mobile as the future direction of MeeGo.
5) Strong Finnish roots
There are very strong connections here to Nokia.
Since MNB has gone down the drain for you, I highly suggest you unsubscribe and prevent yourself from any future frustrations, obviously some preventing you from NOT clicking posts you aren’t interested in.
Thanks.
+
Nokia N9 & Symbian users doesn’t like wp\droid or any other shit so jolla is our only hope
who knows maybe this is Nokia secret plan :p & they will buy them later if wp fail or they success badly otherwise they will have no time!
Maybe the reason is the Jay is interested in this news as well as its readers?
If that “J M” logo is the real thing, these guys need a graphic designer like the desert needs the rain… I definitely hope it’s a temporary thing.
If i was to speculate about the big investors i can’t help thinking about china mobile.
Didn’t they invest pretty hard in meego at Nokia before Nokia went WP?
That’s what Ive been hoping as well. In one of the interviews it sounded like they have only individual investors, no institutions.
They mentioned somewhere they are “standing on shoulders of a giant”.
In an interview the CEO also mentioned he regularly goes to China (in every months, spending cca. one week there).
So…