Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, the mobile landscape has been changing. The magnificent success of Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod devices, with more than 700,000 applications developed, 35 billion downloads, hundreds of millions of devices been sold, and billions of USD in revenues in less than five years, has stimulated significant interest for practitioners, researchers, marketers and executives. Other firms such as Nokia and RIM have been manufacturing and developing mobile phones for several years without necessarily achieving the same level of success as Apple.
One of the main success factors of Apple and their devices is the huge number of available applications (apps) that can be downloaded by users worldwide. These apps are mainly developed by external developers.
The aim of this thesis is to study how firms such as Apple can govern and control their digital ecosystem in a way that leads to success. This ecosystem consists of Apple, users, partners, competitors and external developers. The main concentration lies on the external developers and how they can be motivated to join the ecosystem and how their development of applications can be facilitated.
The outcome of this thesis is published in high ranked conferences and journals, and it is very significant for both researchers and practitioners in the Information Systems field.
Faculty examiner was Professor Pär Ågefalk, Uppsala University. The examining committee consisted of Professor Rikard Lindgren, University of Gothenburg, Professor Jonny Holmström, Umeå University, and Associate Professor Christina Keller, JIBS. Chairperson at the defence was Professor Ola Henfridsson, Chalmers University of Technology.
