I'm puzzled, too. I don't want Jolla to build a so-called "cloud" service; the reason they don't have one of their own (which translates to: they cannot try to shove the damn thing down my throat) is a huge plus compared to Apple or Google. It's a part of the freedom I expect.

On the other hand, this freedom includes freedom of choice... And freedom of choice just requires an easy way to plug into all sorts of 3rd party services, no matter if its PIM services (calendar/contacts), chat services and social networks, image sharing services, file backup etc etc etc. ("easy" meaning easy for the developer: the OS should provide generic APIs and UI elements so that nobody needs to re-invent the wheel and everyone can share URLs from the browser or pictures from the gallery via their application.)