Lecture slides for the Aalto University course S-38.3042 Seminar on Networking Business, Fall 2011. Topic: Mobile platforms. Lecture 1 of 2.

1. S-38.3042 Seminar on Networking
Business P: “Mobile platforms”
First lecture, 2011-11-03
Timo Smura
(final presentation schedule updated on 2011-11-22)

2. Outline
• Course introduction
– Course overview
– Goals of the course
– Presenter / opponent roles
• Fall 2011 seminar: Mobile platforms
– Lecture schedule and deadlines
– Short introduction to topic area
– Allocation of topics to presenters / opponents

3. Course introduction

4. Course overview
• Seminar on current topics of networking business
• Targeted to students of the Master's Programme in
Communications Ecosystem, and students with major or
minor in Network Economics
• Requirements:
– Participation in all sessions
– Presentation and acting as an opponent
– Final report (full paper) + opponent‟s report
• 5 ECTS, grade 0-5
• Responsible teacher: M.Sc. Timo Smura
• Assistant: M.Sc. Juuso Karikoski
• Noppa: https://noppa.aalto.fi/noppa/kurssi/s-38.3042/etusivu

5. Goals of the course
• Learn independent business thinking
• Learn to present ideas and to defend them
• Learn academic writing
• Learn about the topic area by yourself and from others

6. Method
• Literature review + ”desktop research”
– Sources: Academic literature + freely available online resources,
e.g. company annual reports, press releases, market analysts
• Individual work
– Learning from others work
• Writing of report following standard academic template
• Presenting and acting as an opponent

7. Presenter / Opponent roles
• The dialectical method
– Dialogue between two or more people
holding different points of view about a
subject, who wish to establish the truth
of the matter by dialogue, with reasoned
arguments (Plato, ~ 380 BC)
– Different from debate, wherein the
debaters are committed to their points of
view, and mean to win the debate
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_met
hod

8. Fall 2011 seminar: ”Mobile platforms”

9. Industry platforms
(Tee & Gawer, 2009)
• Technological building blocks that act as a foundation upon
which an array of firms develop a set of interrelated products,
technologies, and services (Gawer, 2009a, b).
• Provide an essential, or „core‟, function to an encompassing
system-of-use.
• Are subject to network effects, which tend to reinforce in a
cumulative manner early-gained advantages such as an
installed base of users, or the existence of complementary
products (Eisenmann et al., 2006).
• Typically emerge in the context of modular industries
(Baldwin and Clark, 2000; Baldwin and Woodard, 2009) or
industry ecosystems (Iansiti and Levien, 2004).

11. Mobile news during 2011
• 2011-02-11: ”Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to
Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem”
• 2011-06-21: “Nokia announces MeeGo-based N9 smartphone”
• 2011-08-15: “Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility - Combination will Supercharge Android,
Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences”
• 2011-08-18: “HP will discontinue operations for webOS devices. Will continue to explore
options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward”
• 2011-09-27: “Intel to Support Open Source Software Platform, Tizen” [together with
Samsung]
• 2011-09-28: ”Amazon introduces Silk, a cloud-accelerated web browser, available
exclusively on Kindle Fire” [that runs Android in the background]
• 2011-09-29: “Nokia Preparing New “Meltemi” OS For Low-End Phones”
• 2011-10-04: “Apple Launches iPhone 4S, iOS 5 & iCloud”
• 2011-10-18: “Facebook introduces HTML5 Resource Center” [for developers to build
browser-based apps instead of native apps]
• 2011-10-18: “RIM Unveils BlackBerry BBX - Combines the Best of BlackBerry and QNX to
Provide a Next Generation Platform for BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets”

12. Source: Asymco.com

13. Task
• Your task is to study a given company in terms of its mobile
platform strategy
• The goal is to understand the role of mobile business in
relation to the overall business of the company, and how does
this affect the mobile platform strategy
• Logical structure of the analysis:
1. Company overview
2. Company‟s mobile business
3. Mobile platform strategy
4. Future outlook and recommendations
• More detailed guidelines, structure, and analysis frameworks
will be discussed during the second lecture

14. Lecture schedule and deadlines
Date Time Session / Deadline
2011-11-03 14:15-16:00 Lecture 1: Introduction + task allocation
2011-11-10 14:15-16:00 Lecture 2: Platform literature + report structure
2011-11-18 16:00 Presenter Deadline: Prepare slides for a 10-minute presentation of your current status and
plans, email to opponent, Timo, and Juuso
2011-11-22 12:00 Opponent Deadline: Prepare comments, questions, and critique as opponent to one
presentation (oral)
2011-11-22 12:00-15:00 Intermediate session
(10 min presentation + 5 min opponent comments)
2011-12-05 16:00 Presenter Deadline: Prepare a full paper and a final slideset for a 20-minute presentation, email
to opponent, Timo, and Juuso
2011-12- Before final Opponent Deadline: Prepare comments, questions, and critique as opponent to one
08/09 sessions presentation (oral)
2011-12-08 14:00-18:00 Final session 1:
(20 min presentation + 10 min opponent comments and discussion)
2011-12-09 10:00-14:00 Final session 2
2011-12-11 23:59 Opponent Deadline: Prepare a written document (max 1 page) with comments and critique
(both positive and negative) regarding the opposed paper and presentation, email to presenter,
Timo, and Juuso
2011-12-31 23:59 Presenter Deadline: Prepare and send the final version of full paper to Timo and Juuso

15. Topic assignment
Topic Presenter Opponent
• Topic assignment Apple 1 6
– Combination of lottery and Google 2 7
Dec-8
self-organization 3 11
Microsoft
1. Pick a lottery ticket
Amazon 4 9
2. Negotiate and switch
Facebook 5 8
with each other, within
next 5 minutes Nokia 6 10
• Opponent assignment Samsung 7 1
– Based on the scheme
Dec-9
Intel 8 3
defined in table RIM 9 5
HP 10 4
HTC 11 2
Mobile operator Not allocated Not allocated
platforms

16. Next lecture
• Overview of relevant literature
– Ecosystems, value networks, platforms, ”standards wars”
• Useful analysis frameworks
• Structure of the paper and presentation